| This small beach community is a 15-minute drive
from Cairns. It is a quiet community, with just two small holiday apartments.
The beach is fairly long with a small play center for the kiddies. There is a
single small beachside café open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A couple
of blocks inland is a small set of shops including a grocery store and a café.
The southern exposure of the beach can mean that afternoons can be windy during
the May through August. The city bus service does visit Holloways Beach.
Another of Cairns's residential beaches, Holloways Beach is growing in stature
with the establishment of a resort on the waterfront. The actual beach is narrow
and is unfortunately facing the same erosion dilemma that Machans Beach confronted
many years ago. At this time, Holloways Beach residents and the local council
are devising ways to prevent the sand from slipping into the sea, and consequently
save the houses from slipping onto the beach.
Holloways beach is narrow
- only a couple of metres in width - but is a lovely spot to cool off, take the
dog for a walk, sit and enjoy the fresh air, or cast out a fishing line. A very
nice restaurant and café make Holloways a pleasant beach in all circumstances.
To access Holloways Beach, follow the Captain Cook Highway north until you
reach the roundabout with the sign HOLLOWAYS BEACH. Turn right here and follow
the road all the way to the end. This road is well marked with signs, which make
it easy to follow.
A more secluded spot away from other people can be
found by making a right turn at the roundabout located at the Holloways Beach
Park. You'll know you are at the roundabout because there is a telephone relay
house on the left side and a large park with a water tower in the middle of it,
on the right. Go to the end of this road and there will be a small track leading
down to the beach. Park at the top of this track.
Note: This beach has
a stinger net during the stinger season. When the stinger net is in place, please
only swim inside its protective barriers. Swimming outside the nets exposes you
to unnecessary dangers.
Holloways
Swimming
beach, picnic areas, and boat ramp
Facilities: variety of accommodation, shops,
cafes, restaurants, a liquor store, a newsagency and a general store. |
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Bondi Beach Guide |  |
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 Traveller
Information Bondi Beach | Bondi
Beach Australia is located along the shores of Sydney, Australia. One of the more
famous and popular beaches in Australia, Bondi offers an array of fun activities,
suitable for every budget and every age. From the ancient days of Aboriginal fishing,
people have been flocking to Bondi Beach Australia for its warm waters and clean,
sandy beaches. Transportation the beach is convenient and frequent, and tourists
will find this to be an excellent beach in Australia
When dining, Bondi
Beach offers plenty of café and restaurant options throughout the day. Campbell
Parade is a main strip of shops and restaurants in the town, and visitors will
find everything from a quick bite, to sit down dining options. When in Bondi Beach,
and generally throughout most of Australia, tourists will often see "BYO" on the
side of a restaurant, or on the restaurant's menu. This means Bring Your Own Alcohol,
and generally most patrons do. Some restaurants charge a very moderate corkage
fee, but this is not the norm.
Traveling to Bondi Beach is generally
very convenient from any central location in Sydney. Buses travel from Bondi Junction
in Sydney right to Bondi Beach Australia just about every ten minutes, until around
midnight. Since parking at the beach itself is quite crowded and difficult, the
bus is actually the main mode of transport for tourists and locals alike. You
will experience much less hassle if you leave your car behind. There are also
trains running from Bondi Junction to the beach about every ten minutes, so you'll
be sure to have a convenient lift to Bondi.
As an extremely popular
beach in Australia, Bondi Beach is a great place to visit if you plan to spend
any amount of time in Sydney. Be sure to bring plenty of sun block along as the
sun can be quite intense in all temperatures. Bondi Beach Australia offers a fun,
warm way to kick back and enjoy a day at the beach.
Sydney’s most
famous beach, Bondi, is easily reached by taking the city bus from the foot of
Oxford Street. If you’re planning a day at Bondi, I suggest an early start.
You can enjoy breakfast at any of the cafes that line the street across from the
beach. (There all seemed fairly comparable in price, quality and menu offerings,
so just pick one that has open tables outdoors and admire the scenery going by.)
These cafes are a good choice for lunch, too. On Bondi’s long, crescent
of white sand, certain areas are cordoned off for surfers, other for swimmers.
Families, youths and gays seemed to each have their own areas, as well. Wherever
your spot is, you’ll get to see the famous Aussie lifesavers at work. If
you get tired of Bondi, take a walk over the hill at the south end to the prettier,
more cloistered (and gayer) Tamarama Beach. The walkway, which takes you over
cliffs and past some stunning rock formations, continues beyond Tamarama to Bronte
and Coogee Beaches. | | |
| How
to Reach Bondi Beach? | | Bondi Beach
can be reached from the centre of Sydney on bus numbers 380, 382 and 389 (you
must change buses at Bondi Junction). You can also get the train to Bondi Junction,
and then either walk or catch a bus onto Bondi Beach. | |
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Life Savers at Bondi Beach | Surf
lifesavers are what made Bondi famous and there's a bronze sculpture of one outside
the Bondi Pavilion. The surf lifesaving movement began in 1906 with the founding
of the Bondi Surf Life Bathers' Lifesaving Club in response to the drownings that
accompanied the increasing popularity of swimming. From the beginning of the colony,
swimming was harshly discouraged as an unsuitable bare-fleshed activity. However,
by the 1890s swimming in the ocean had become the latest fad, and a Pacific Islander
introduced the concept of catching waves or bodysurfing that was to become an
enduring national craze. Although "wowsers" (teetotal puritanical types)
attempted to put a stop to it, by 1903 all-day swimming was every Sydneysider's
natural right.
The bronzed and muscled surf lifesavers - of both sexes
- in their distinctive red and yellow caps are a highly photographed, world-famous
Australian image. Surf lifesavers (members of what are now called Surf Life Saving
Clubs, abbreviated to SLSC) are volunteers working the beach at weekends, so come
then to watch their exploits such as whizzing out in the rescue boats for some
practise manoeuvres - or look out for a surf carnival; lifeguards, on the other
hand, are employed by the council and work all week during swimming season (year-round
at Bondi). | | |
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Bondi Beach | Surfing
is part of the Bondi legend, the big waves ensuring that there's always a pack
of damp young things hanging around, bristling with surfboards. However, the beach
is carefully delineated, with surfers using the southern end. There are two sets
of flags for swimmers and boogie-boarders, with families congregating at the northern
end near the sheltered saltwater pool (free), and everybody else using the middle
flags. The beach is netted and there hasn't been a shark attack for over forty
years. If the sea is too rough, or if you want to swim laps, a seawater swimming
pool at the southern end of the beach under the Bondi Icebergs Club building on
Notts Avenue costs $1.
Topless bathing is allowed at Bondi - a long
way from conditions right up to the late 1960s when stern beach inspectors were
constantly on the lookout for indecent exposure. In fact, so blasé are
the attitudes now that every January an irreverent sunset nude surfing competition
is held, watched by TV cameras and a huge crowd offering a wry commentary. |
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