Jervis Bay
A Marine Park Bay On The New South Wales South Coast Known For Some Of The Whitest Sand Measured Anywhere, With Hyams Beach As Its Best Known Stretch And Bottlenose Dolphins Resident In The Bay Year Round · Huskisson, New South Wales
Jervis Bay is a broad, almost landlocked harbour on the New South Wales south coast, about three hours south of Sydney past Nowra, enclosed by Point Perpendicular to the north and the long sandy sweep of the Bherwerre Peninsula to the south. The bay's biggest claim is its sand: Hyams Beach has been measured among the whitest anywhere on earth, fine enough to squeak underfoot, and testing has been repeated more than once because visitors kept assuming a mistake. A pod of bottlenose dolphins lives in the bay year-round, visible from the shore most days and from small tour boats out of Huskisson, and humpback whales pass close offshore on migration between roughly May and November. Much of the bay's southern shore sits inside Booderee National Park and the Jervis Bay Marine Park, a Commonwealth park co-managed with the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community, protecting sponge gardens, soft corals and grey nurse shark habitat close to a calm, swimmable beach. Huskisson itself is a modest strip of fish-and-chip shops and dive operators, not a resort town, and that restraint is most of the appeal.
A marine park bay on the New South Wales south coast, about three hours south of Sydney, with Hyams Beach on its southern shore, Huskisson, New South Wales, Australia
Jervis Bay itself never closes, but almost everything built around it keeps set hours. Booderee National Park's gate charges a per-vehicle entry fee and is staffed through the day, with the botanic gardens open roughly nine to four and shorter in winter. Dolphin and whale-watching boats out of Huskisson run scheduled morning and afternoon trips through the warmer months, with winter whale trips added on when migrating pods are passing and no trips at all in a strong southerly swell - confirm sailing before driving down. Dive charters run two-tank trips most mornings, weather depending. Cafes in Huskisson keep normal daytime hours and some close by early evening outside summer. Hyams Beach has no gate and no closing time.