As a tourist, when people think about beaches, it’s usually in and around Sydney. Places that spring to mind may be Bondi Beach, Shelley Beach in Manly, Bronte Beach, all the places that people may typically think of, but if you want to go somewhere different, just a couple of hours outside Sydney is Newcastle in New South Wales.
Newcastle is the second oldest city in not just New South Wales, but Australia, and is located on the traditional country of the Awakabal and Worimi people.
According to the City of Newcastle’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) 2022 – 2026 there are four key focus areas for better access and inclusion:
- Developing positive community attitudes and behaviours
- Creating liveable communties
- Supporting access to meaningful employment
- Improving access to mainstream services through better systems and processes
We went there for a day, and at a glance, there are immediately accessible amenities in the city, but what about for people who want to visit one of the most popular aspects of Newcastle – the beaches?
The City of Newcastle has made progress with better access and inclusion.
If you visit Nobbys Beach, Newcastle Museum in the CBD or even Wallsend have included accessible change facilities and, according to their DIAP, they are in progress of auditing other locations for these higher level facilities.
Want access to the beach? Of course you do.
Not every beach along the shoreline will have access to beach wheelchairs or beach matting, however Bar Beach, located in southwest Newcastle has adult and child-sized beach wheelchairs available for hire, beach matting and for the experienced even a beach power wheelchair. Bookings and more information can be found at Cooks Hill Surf Club.
At the time of visiting and writing this, City of Newcastle was in the process of revitalising and enhancing The Bathers Way, which links Merewether Ocean Baths to Nobbys Beach.
The six kilometre path along South Newcastle Beach was hit heavily by three consecutive La Nina events, and these, as well as other severe wet weather conditions, damaged the coastline prompting City of Newcastle to take action to repair and make improvements to accessibility in the process.
You can read more about the facilities of Newcastle’s beaches here.
You know what’s good? Cake.
It was time for an afternoon hit of caffeine and cake and so we hit up Cake Boi in Hamilton for a slice of their caramel cake, a slice of Devil’s Food Cake. The place is accessible-ish. Which by that we mean that there is a ramp to get into the shop, and a small step at the other entrance, but because of the angle, it won’t be for every mobility device, however there is outdoor seating.
Other things to do in Newcastle:
