Barlings Beach (NSW 557) marks the beginning of a series of more open and longer beaches, due partly to a transition in the geology to softer rocks (Fig. 4.381). Barlings is a curving 1 km long sand beach that faces due south between 15 m high Barlings Island and the conical 25 m high Melville Point. The beach is part of a 400-600 m wide series of regressive foredune ridges, fronted by 100 m of now vegetated transgressive dunes. In the north these have been covered by a caravan park, while the remainder still remained undeveloped in 2007. A road runs to the southern end of the beach and up to a lookout on Melville Point. Behind the northern end is a caravan park with foot access to the beach. The beach is protected in the eastern corner with waves averaging less than 1 m with an attached bar and no rips. Toward the centre and the south the wave height increases to average 1.5 m against Melville Point. This results in a permanent rip against the point and up to 5-6 rips up the beach, usually separated by the attached bar. read more

Beach Length: 1.2km