PWBCSA

I love the beach.

The sort of beaches I love, just to give you an idea, are the kind I've found in The Maldives, Southern Thailand, Perth, Dubai, The Caribbean... you get the picture. Long expanses of crisp white sand and crystal clear blue waters stretching as far as the eye can see, with the odd plam tree dotted around.

We are planning on moving to Melbourne as there are various people there that we know and we enjoyed the 'cafe culture' when there. We've spent a fair amount of time in Oz but not very long in Melbourne; unfortunatley when there we didn't visit the beaches at all which now appears to have been a bit of an error. Ideally I would like to go to Perth but my better half wants a ready made friend base which we'll have in Melbourne.

Am I going to find my kind of beach in Melbourne?
If so, where?

Any links to relevant pics would be greatly appreciated.

OR

We didn't visit Brisbane when we were in Oz but I wonder if this could be a half-way measure. 'Close' enough to Melbourne to visit people easily and I, presume, the sort of beaches I am after.

In the greater scheme of things I know that this is fairly unimportant and I am really excited at going anyway. But all information is very much appreciated.

Cheers.

Grayling

Brisbane is not exactly 'close' to Melbourne.

It also does not have any worthwhile beaches. They are on the Sunshine or Gold coasts - a fair distance away.

Good luck

G

Pollyana

Try Tasmania.......

Sue from Manchester

Hi

my sister lives on the Mornington Peninsula about an hour south of Melbourne. Here's a picture of one of the local beaches. I have it as the wallpaper on my pc!

JAJ

Also ask are you going to find your kind of 'beach weather' in Melbourne.

If beaches are important to you, Melbourne is probably not the place. It has other charms.

Melbourne itself is on Port Phillip Bay. This does have beaches but I don't know how special they are. Drive down to the south coast (1-2 hours) and you get top-class surf beaches.


I don't know how you could see Brisbane as a half-way measure. You'll still have a 2.5 hour flight or something to Melbourne, compared with about 4.5 hours from Perth.

I think you need to jointly decide with your partner what factors are important and what are not. If you move to Melbourne you can always take your beach holidays in northern Queensland or Thailand.

Jeremy

PWBCSA

Thanks,

I appreciate that Melbourne won't have the all year round weather that I am after and I know that Brisbane isn't really all that close.

To be honest I am just happy that my other half as finally agreed to go where ever we may end up.

I know we could fly to the kinds of beaches I am after for holidays etc. But I have a dream of getting home from work and going for a run along the beach as the sun sets over the cystal blue waters...

Donut

I don't want to dishearten you, but the weather in Melbourne is very similar to the UK weather...my Aunt and Uncle live there and they really miss the beachside weather of NSW and QLD.
On the other hand, there's many positives to living in Melbourne....but I just don't know what they are...sorry!
But the people all over Australia are beautiful, so that'll definately make up for the weather there!

CPW

Best major cities for surfing beaches are Perth and Sydney. Sydney also has some delightful harbour beaches. Much of the coast of NSW has good beaches.

Melbourne and Brisbane are not really beach cities - Brisbane has surf beaches to the south (the Gold Coast - rather overdeveloped) and to the north (the Sunshine Coast), but both are a fair distance away for an after-work swim. Melbourne has bay beaches, but the weather is not as conducive for swimming as in the other main cities.

Tasmania certainly has some glorious beaches, but the weather is cool.

Going back up to Queensland, once you get north as far as the Barrier Reef (i.e. about Bundaberg and northwards), the surf ends (it is stopped by the reef itself). Beaches in far north Queensland are beautiful but not very good for year-round swimming - a chance encounter with a box jellyfish would be a grossly unpleasant (and terminal) event! They are more likely to be found in the wet season (i.e. the southern summer).

renth

Perth, you know you want to.