Gunnamatta Bay (Darook Beach, Lagano Beach, Gunnamatta Park)

It's Monday of the October long weekend, the unofficial start of summer. The sun is shining, the mercury has hit a balmy 29 degrees, and with daylight savings now in effect, the days are stretching longer. There’s only one thing to do on a day like today, and that’s to hit the beach. Unfortunately, of course, everyone else in Sydney has had the same idea.

For the last half hour, my car has been inching painfully down Kingsway, Cronulla’s elusive horizon beckoning impatiently as its magnetic blue slips away behind a growing haze of exhaust. I yearn for the water’s cool embrace, but the road holds me fast in its chorus of beeps and honks.

Suddenly, a break emerges in the oncoming traffic - an omen revealing a side street twisting to the right. I follow the sign, an impetuous swing of the steering wheel pulling me from the quagmire of brake lights and hurling me into a world unknown.

The path less travelled takes me through a sleepy pocket of suburbia, winding to and fro. Endlessly and freely, I glide along, free from all concern.

But then - an ambush! A stubborn patch of bushy parkland pounces, standing firm in my way. It shrouds what lies beyond, pretending there’s nothing else to see. Yet the taste of salt in the air hints at something more.

Abandoning the car to bake in the sun, I step beneath the shade of towering Norfolk pines and into the wild bushland. Not far ahead and my eyes encounter what they’ve been yearning for all along: greenery yields to soft white sand curving gently along a shoreline. But there’s no surf here and no lifeguards either. Just sill water and the slow cadence of the tide.

Sheltered from the ocean currents, I’ve stumbled upon Darook Beach, nestled south-west of Cronulla in the calm waters of Gunnamatta Bay. At low tide crystalline turquoise water gleams like glass, spreading across an expansive sandbar that draws the eye out towards Port Hacking, Bundeena, and the Royal National Park. It’s irresistible for a quiet float or wading in the shallows, soaking in the warmth of the sun.  

Darook Beach

From here, I watch a small motorboat drift away, its captain an elderly man clad only in a speedo, his dark skin leathery from years beneath the sun. Petrol fumes trail behind him across to the only beach on the western side of the bay, named Lugano after the avenue that leads down to it.

A few scattered rocks mark the edges of the hundred-metre hidden beach, providing perches for sunbathers or adventurous children. A modest small craft launch ramp hums quietly with the occasional activity of kayaks, canoes and surf skis. Jetties jut out from people’s back lawns, here and there a foot dangling over, playfully teasing the softly lapping water below.

Back on my side of the bay I follow hot on the trail for today’s final beach. I find it beneath the 14-acre Gunnamatta Park, an expanse of grassy lawns framed by clusters of coastal gums. As picnic blankets give way to beach towels, all are united under an air of calm and relaxation. 

The tranquillity extends beyond the sand to the netted Gunnamatta Bay Baths, where people drift lazily between the nets, surrendering to the water’s motion. Nearby, some dedicated swimmers refuse to concede, slicing through their daily laps with precise, steady rhythm. Teenagers, too, eager not to waste a precious day free from school, leap and flip into the deep blue of the baths, laughter mingling with the splashing of the water.

Gunnamatta Bay Baths

Outside the baths, the wider bay stretches freely, the movement of small boats and paddleboards mirrored in the glossy surface. In the shallows, sand swirls delicately as drowsy stingrays stir from their rest, shadowed by shorebirds foraging for their dinner.

With the beach facing west, I’m treated to a rare sunset, a fiery orb spilling orange hues over darkening water. The sun’s retreat is a reluctant one, hovering on the horizon as if to ward off the night, spoiling us with beauty in the final moments of the day.

Tomorrow the workweek will return, the traffic will crawl once more. But here, for now, everything is alright, the world held still at Gunnamatta Bay.

Sunset at Gunnamatta Bay

Total beaches: 102/179