The beaches of the northern Bellarine Peninsula have huge value and appeal to residents and visitors alike. We are working to ensure access to the beaches is safe and provides options for everyone, while being sustainable and protecting cultural and environmental values.
Australia is known as a beach country with one of the longest national coastlines in the world and around 85% of Australia's population living within 50 km of the coast. The beach has come to symbolise the Australian way of life – fun, freedom and independence.
We are undertaking a beach access study to ensure we maintain and improve beach access to be safe, equitable and sustainable.
Your insights and feedback will help shape future planning for beach access along our coast.
Preliminary investigations have identified 333 beach access points (both formal and informal) along the 17 km coastline managed by Bellarine Bayside, equating to approximately one access point for every 50 m (see below map).
Of the current access points, only two are considered to provide safe access to the back of the beach for people of all abilities. This means they provide for viewing of the beach, but do not provide ongoing access leading into the sand.
Many of the recorded access points are not formalised, having been created as people cross the dune to access the beautiful beaches. Informal access points create risks for both people and the precious coastal environment. They are often narrow, uneven or arriving at unsafe beaches, and they impact on cultural, marine and coastal values.
Map of the identified beach access points.
The beach access study will explore the challenges and opportunities around current beach access points. It will:
- Consider safety and accessibility requirements.
- Provide a sustainable long-term strategy to strike a balance between providing access to the beach and minimising impacts on cultural and environmental values.
- Provide a management framework to assist with planning the ongoing maintenance and renewal of beach access points.
- Inform future improvements to beach access along our coast.
Join the conversation
Throughout the project we are engaging with the community.
The first phase of community engagement for the Beach Access Study ran from 23 November 2024 to 17 January 2025, inviting people to tell us about their values, concerns and ideas along the coast through the Planning Our Future Coast project.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to provide feedback!
What We Heard summary
We undertook the first round of community engagement occurred between 23 November 2024 - 17 January 2025.
