Updated on August 20, 2024
Australia is known for its stunning, amazing coastlines, but for wheelchair users, accessibility to these beautiful coastlines can be concerning. Here, we’ve put together 10 beaches equipped for an enjoyable day by the water.
1. Williamstown Beach
Williamstown Beach, Victoria offers a full range of amenities. Permanent wheelchair matting allows for effortless movement from the car park to the water’s edge. The beach wheelchairs and beach walking frames are available for free hire on weekends for months in summer. The walking frames and the beach wheelchairs are great for people of all ages with mobility limitations who would like to enjoy the sun and sand.
2. Altona Beach
Altona Beach, Victoria is the first beach in Australia to offer year-round beach matting, allowing easy access to the water for people with different abilities. Like Williamstown Beach, Altona Beach has permanent matting from the car park to the ocean side, and wheelchairs are available for complimentary hire during months in summer. Altona Beach is renowned for its charming Esplanade and calm waters and offers recreational and water sports activities, such as kite surfing, paddle boarding, and beach volleyball.
3. Henley Beach
In Southern Australia, Henley Beach is the first beach to have an inclusive suite of accessibility facilities for visitors of different abilities, especially guests with limited mobility. Henley Beach offers persons with disability accessible beach mats available 24/7 – with free beach wheelchair and beach walker hire, with a nationally accredited ‘Changing Places’ accessible public toilet and change facility. The beach also has 6 accessible parking spaces.
4. Fingal Bay Beach
Fingal Bay Beach has wheelchair mattings installed to allow guests with limited mobility access to the beach. The beach also has a special Mobichair, a floating wheelchair to enjoy the waves. Other accessibility facilities in Finlay Bay Beach include 4 accessible car spaces, Wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, SandCruiser beach wheelchairs, and an Onsite hoist–which has a bring-your-own sling policy.
5. Broadbeach
The Broadbeach stretch is on the Gold Coast in Queensland, and they cater to people of all abilities with free beach wheelchairs, matting, and accessible toilets through partnerships with surf clubs. The Broadbeach stretch was a coastal forest originally. It gradually became sandy due to the early 20th-century sand mining. Development in the area today mostly incorporates low-rise structures, consisting of single-bedroom houses and apartment blocks.
6. Rockingham Beach
Rockingham Beach in the south of Perth, has six wheelchair-accessible points with matting and a variety of beach wheelchairs and walkers for loan. Beach access matting assists many people, including people with disability, seniors, and parents with prams, making it easier to get from the main footpath onto the sand. Depending on the weather conditions, the matting is available from October through to April each year.
Wheelchairs are free and can be picked up at the Rockingham Visitor Centre, The Cruising Yacht Club and the Seaside Camp for Kids. Beach walkers are also free, and can booked through the City directly and collected from either the Aqua Jetty or Mike Barnett Sports Complex.
7. Lorne Beach
Lorne Beach is an amazing beach in an exotic location along Victoria’s iconic Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority (GORCAPA) cannot extend the matting below the high tide, and they also ensure that storms haven’t damaged or washed them away. GORPCAPA officers are dispatched twice a week and after a storm to check placements of beach access matting.
During strong winds, large amounts of sand can deposit during a couple of hours, and while they do their best to ensure the matting remains accessible to all, the matting cannot always be free of loose wind-blown sand.
Lorne Beach offers Mobi-Matting and free beach wheelchair hire during peak season to persons of all abilities. Accessible facilities such as a bathroom, shower, and car park are also offered.
8. South Cronulla Beach
South Cronulla Beach has one of the best accessible beachfronts suitable for strolls in Sydney. By having a wide open bay, the view from the beach is out to the open sea. The surf life saves in South Cronulla are some of the friendliest in Sydney. If you park by the club, they’ll assist you in accessing the beach wheelchair.
Purpose-built permanent seating and accessible sun loungers with outdoor showers make this a paradise for a swimmer. The cafes are next door to the club and seating offers a sunny place with easy-to-access breakfast, lunch or coffee, all in a small area. If you fancy longer strolls, park at North Cronulla and use the paved pathway along the beach to the South Cronulla Surf Club and onto Shelly Beach which has an enclosed playground, accessible toilets and ramps into tidal pools.
9. Surfers Paradise
Surfers Paradise has matting and beach wheelchairs available, standard accessible toilets on the foreshore and in the shopping centre across the road. The beach showers are beach wheelchair-accessible. There are four accessible car parks on the Esplanade about 80 metres from where the matting is placed with more accessible parking in the shopping centre. There are multiple seating areas on the foreshore with plenty of shade.
10. Tallebudgera Creek
Tallebudgera Creek is a welcoming accessible beach in Gold Coast. The beach has a concrete ramp leading onto the beach and matting attached. The waterway is calm and allows full immersion. Floating chairs go into the water because there are no waves. The beach matting is available on the weekends from September to May. Other accessible facilities include parking and bathroom.
Looking for reliable and trustworthy care services?
At Centre Disability Support, we offer tailored support services for individuals with disabilities throughout Australia. We offer housing options in Logan, Ipswich and Brisbane areas, where we provide independent supported living or assist individuals in finding suitable options for individualised living.
Additionally, we provide day-to-day support for individuals with mental health issues, complex behaviour and other types of disabilities. We also have support coordinators available to assist with planning, navigating NDIS plans, and offering casework support.
Whether you’re seeking support for yourself, or a loved one, or simply wish to learn more about our services, we’re here to help.
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