Top-5 Beach Drives

Salty hair, sun-kissed nose and sandy toes… everyone loves the seaside. If you have an SUV with dual-range four-wheel drive and appropriate tyres, Australia offers numerous beaches where you can actually drive right on the sand. And some you can actually camp on…

Of course, driving through dunes or along the water’s edge requires some specific skills, so check out these tips and do a bit of forward planning (permits may be required) before heading off. And, when you return, don’t forget to give your vehicle a thorough wash and hose-down as long term build-up of salt and sand isn’t terrific.

Cloudy Corner (Bruny Island), Tasmania

This little campground isn’t just remote it’s also very beautiful – and only accessible by piloting a 4x4  along a beach. Cloudy Corner is at the southern end of South Bruny Island, about a two hour drive from Hobart, including the half-hour ferry ride.

Cloudy Bay Road ends at a beach, and at low tide (research this), you drive about three kilometres down the sand to the most gorgeous campground. There’s no electricity or fresh water, and you’ll need to bring either gas or firewood, but the secluded location, the beach and the scenery make it worthwhile.

Robe, South Australia

For this beach drive, you’ll need to be experienced, resolute, not easily unnerved, and in a serious off-roader with plenty of recovery gear and experience. But the wind-swept, open beach is certainly beguiling and, indeed, you can drive almost 60km from Robe to Beachport, detouring onto tracks into the dunes as obstacles and tides dictate.

Or you can go for a short drive, turn around and go back. The Robe Visitor Information Centre has maps and plenty of advice, and the town itself is pretty. After a hard day’s off-roading, nothing beats a cold Coopers Pale Ale and a seafood feast at the historic Caledonian Inn.

North Noosa, Queensland

Noosa Heads is one of Australia’s great holiday destinations, but it’s also close to one of the country’s best beach drives. From Noosa North Shore, leave the bitumen and hit the sand from Beach Road, and don’t look back for about 50km on the way north to Rainbow Beach.

Below the high-tide mark the sand is mainly firm, but obviously follow all 4WD sand-driving precautions. Stop for surf fishing and you can swim, but be careful as rips are common.

Blue water, green coastal vegetation and the sand singing under your tyres – this is Australia as per the tourism brochures.

Stockton Beach (near Newcastle), NSW

Bet you didn’t know Stockton is NSW’s longest beach (about 32km) and, with most of it accessible by vehicle (permits permitting), it’s a must-do for anyone even remotely into off-roading.

Just north of Newcastle, and only a couple of hours from Sydney, the beach is accessed easily via Lavis Lane in Williamtown or via James Paterson Street at Anna Bay, at the beach’s northern end. Look out for the remnants of the MV Cygna shipwreck and marvel at the huge Stockton Dunes… but most of all, enjoy the drive.

Yalgorup National Park, Western Australia

Yes, you can drive 2200km north of Perth to Broome and watch the sunset off Cable Beach from your SUV. But for something closer, drive about 90km south, past Mandurah to Yalgorup National Park, and the beach driving is just as good.

The stretch includes Tims Thicket, Preston and White Hills beaches, which are easily accessible, and there are many miles of sand – some of it quite soft, so be careful.