Horseshoe Bay

Magnetic Island, Queensland

Horseshoe is the longest and best of the beaches on beautiful Magnetic Island, a short ferry ride from Townsville. Visitors can explore the island’s many walking tracks, take a reef cruise or engage in everything from snorkelling to horse riding.

Casuarina Beach

Darwin, Northern Territory

Casuarina is the longest of the 12 beaches on Darwin’s irregular northern shoreline. The coastal reserve features mangroves, monsoon vine-forest and casuarina woodlands, as well as the biggest range of wildlife in the Darwin area.

Frangipani Beach

Cape York, Queensland

At the northernmost tip of Australia, beautiful Frangipani Beach is a great place to cool off after the epic two to three-day 4WD trek from Cooktown. The rough dirt road includes more than 30 creek and river crossings, some the habitat of crocodiles.

Cape Peron

Shark Bay, Western Australia

The white sands of Cape Peron sit below bright red pindan bluffs in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. The biggest area of seagrass meadows in Australia is home to the country’s largest dugong population.

Catherine Hill Bay

Catherine Hill Bay, New South Wales

Only 100 kilometres from Sydney, pristine Catherine Hill Bay owes it preservation to the coal mine, which has controlled and limited development here for 150 years. The mine’s decommissioned jetty still stands but otherwise the beach remains in a pretty natural state.

Gibson Steps

Great Ocean Road, Victoria

The two eroded sea stacks known as ‘Gog and Magog’ are battered by the ferocious surf off Gibsons Steps in Victoria’s Port Campbell National Park. Access to the sands is via a dramatic cliff-hanging walkway, but this wild beach is definitely not a place to swim.

Mon Repos

Mon Repos Conservation Park, Queensland

The site of the largest loggerhead turtle nesting site in Australia, on most nights in summer Mon Repos sees about 450 turtles come ashore to lay their eggs in holes they dig on the sandy beach. Protected within the Mon Repos Conservation Park, the once endangered turtles are experiencing a slow comeback.

Crescent Head

Crescent Head, New South Wales

Its classic right-hand peeling break has made Crescent Head a favourite surfing destination for decades, but this charming, out-of-the-way town in northern NSW also offers safe family swimming in shallow Killick Creek.

First Ever Authoritive List of Australia's Best Beaches

Australia's best beaches, in one place.

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About the Book

Which Australian beach is made entirely of shells, millions of them, several metres deep?
Which beach has the biggest waves?
Where is the World's largest sand island?
Where do loggerhead turtles come to lay their eggs?
And why does Australia have the best beaches on the planet?

This book answers all of those questions and more. Between them, authors Andy Short and Brad Farmer have visited every one of Australia’s 11,761 mainland beaches, making them uniquely qualified to tell us which are the ones we have to see before we die. This superbly illustrated and thoroughly researched book will make you want to start the journey right now.


Frequently Asked Questions answered by the authors.
Why Australia has the World's best beaches.
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