Point Impossible Beach

Keep going east along the sand from Whites Beach and you eventually run out of beach. That's Point Impossible, about 5 km north-east of Torquay, where Thompson Creek meets the sea and Breamlea starts on the other side. Locals call it Possos. Its Wadawurrung name is Kurrak Panyul, and the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority, which manages it, notes that clans gathered here for ceremony and celebration over many thousands of years.

The point itself is low, a bit of calcarenite (a sandy limestone) capped by dunes about 10 m high. There's a big gravel car park on top, a toilet block, a few tracks down to the sand, and not much else. That's most of the appeal. You get a long, open beach, a wide sky and, on a weekday out of season, hardly anyone around.

It's about 10 minutes' drive from north Torquay, so it's the closest proper bit of wild coast to our end of town.

Right in front of the car park is a small pocket of sand, Point Impossible Beach proper, which forms the western side of the Thompson Creek mouth. Beyond the creek, Breamlea Beach runs about 2 km north-east to Noble Rocks. Surf Life Saving's Beachsafe notes a tidal channel and sandy shoals at the creek mouth, and they move around with the tides and the swell. It's a good spot to sit and watch the water, less good for little kids to paddle in.

There's no bridge at the mouth, so if you want to see the Breamlea side, our Breamlea and Lake Connewarre guide has the beach, the wetlands and where to look for birds. It's a separate drive round by road.

Looking the other way, the sand runs south-west all the way back to Torquay. Beachsafe treats this whole stretch as Whites Beach, 4.5 km long, with the Point Impossible end being the quietest part of it.

Part of the beach near the point is a legal clothing-optional beach under the Nudity (Defined Areas) Act 1983. Surf Coast Shire describes it as starting about 350 m south-west of the 53W marker at Point Impossible and running about 1 km south-west towards Whites Beach, from the top of the first dune out to about 100 m past the low-water mark. Either car park gets you there.

In February 2024 the Authority moved the signs, because the old ones (put up more than 20 years earlier) covered over 1300 m instead of the legal 1000 m. So the signed area is now smaller than people may remember. Nudity isn't allowed in the dunes or anywhere on the beach outside the signs. If you're here with kids and would rather avoid it, walk the other way from the car park, or start from Whites Beach and turn back before the signs.

This is the one that trips people up. Whites Beach closer to town is off-leash, but Point Impossible is a Shorebird Protection Zone, and the Authority's rule here is dogs on a lead at all times. Horse riders need to stick to their permit conditions too.

The reason is the hooded plovers. These small shorebirds nest on the open sand between September and March, and their eggs and chicks are very hard to see. The shire lists Point Impossible as one of its plover exclusion areas, and when chicks hatch the Authority fences off an exclusion zone with signs. No dogs are allowed inside it while the chicks are on the beach, which can be up to 35 days. In early 2024 the Authority reported plovers nesting at the northern end of the beach, and a chick hatched right in the middle of the clothing-optional stretch.

The rest is simple: keep out of fenced areas, walk near the water's edge rather than up by the dunes, and give the birds plenty of room. If you want somewhere the dog can run, head back to Whites Beach. Our dog-friendly Torquay guide has the off-leash beaches and the summer rules.