5 best Aussie getaway beaches (Part B)

1  Vlasoff Cay, QLD

A little patch of the Maldives in Far North Queensland, Vlasoff Cay is a kind of James Bond-meets-Castaway island fantasy. Only it’s real and you really do arrive like a secret agent — dropping in by helicopter on your own private smear of sand in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. Vlasoff is one of a handful of photogenic cays found off Cairns. Nautilus Aviation will get you there for two hours of champagne-swilling picnicking fun from $789 per person.

2  Refuge Cove, VIC

The best beaches are often the most difficult to reach. That’s certainly the case with Refuge Cove, a tiny inlet hidden on the southwest coast of Wilson’s Promontory, the southernmost point of mainland Australia. It’s a 17km walk from the nearest road and requires an enthusiasm for overnight hiking, but pitching your tent by Refuge’s crystal-clear waters as a wombat meanders past is soul restoring. You can cheat and get there by boat with Wildlife Coast Cruises for $260 per person.

3  Rapid Bay, SA

A sand pancake flattened between cliffs and ocean where dragons dwell (weedy sea ones, that is), Rapid Bay is a pearl on the Fleurieu Peninsula. When SA’s founding father, Colonel William Light, clambered ashore here he exclaimed: “I have hardly seen a place I like better”. Locals concur. Between the clifftops there’s a swirl of secluded beach to be found. Just north of here is Second Valley, home to a cliff-jumping site where daredevils fling themselves brazenly into the water 15 metres below.

4  Ormiston Gorge, NT

Forget everything you know about beaches: breaking waves, seashells, sandcastles, squawking sea gulls. You’ll find none of that here, but Ormiston Gorge nonetheless has a generous dollop of golden sand worthy of sinking your toes into. Located in the West MacDonnell National Park near Alice Springs, Ormiston is a tapestry of fiery ochre cliffs and white ghost gums pinned beneath a cobalt sky. The water hole is flanked by broad sand banks and plunges up to 14m deep.

5  Lucky Bay, WA

When explorer Matthew Flinders took refuge here from a storm in 1802, he named the cove Lucky Bay. Those who have the good fortune to stumble across this idyllic nook in Cape Le Grand National Park, near Esperance, think it an appropriate moniker. Impossibly white sand, turquoise water, delicate waves that will make you want to roll around amorously in the shallows — all the cliches are here.