Sunnyside Beach Travel Guide

Sunnyside North Beach sits on Port Phillip Bay in Mount Eliza, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, reached from a carpark at the end of Sunnyside Road — not Humphries Road, despite what you might read elsewhere. It's roughly an hour's drive south of Melbourne, about 12 kilometres from Frankston.

Getting There

A car is the only realistic way in: there's a carpark at the end of Sunnyside Road, with toilets, showers and free electric barbecues at its far end. From there, the clothing-optional stretch itself is not right next to the carpark — it starts about 500 metres further along, either via a winding dirt path through scrub or by walking the beach over a rocky section.

The nearest airport with published distance data is Melbourne Moorabbin Airport (MBW) — see the figure below for the straight-line distance, since no confirmed road route or transit option to any airport is on record for this beach.

If you're after Victoria's only other legal clothing-optional beaches, be prepared to travel: the next-closest, Point Impossible near Torquay, is 176 km away each way — a four-to-five-hour round trip, not a same-day backup plan.

Costs

Sunnyside North Beach itself is free to enter — there's no beach entry fee. The carpark, however, introduced paid parking in 2023: $6.20 an hour, or $19.50 for the full day, in effect from 8am to 8pm. Bring your own food; there are no vendors or kiosks at the beach or the carpark, only the free electric barbecues at the carpark's far end.

Seasons & Conditions

Wave conditions here run mild year-round for a bay beach, with September the biggest-swell month on record and January the calmest. Overall, conditions are described as mixed but usually swimmable, with a livelier season around the southern-hemisphere spring rather than midsummer.

Safety

There is no lifesaver patrol at Sunnyside North Beach at any time. The beach carries a general hazard rating of 3 out of 10, among the least hazardous ratings used for Victorian beaches, and no shark incidents are on record for the area. That said, the access track has its own risks: as of October 2023, the path from the carpark to the clothing-optional stretch was reported poorly maintained, with an outdated warning sign still left on the rocks. Sturdy footwear and care on the rocky sections are worth the effort.

The beach's legal status has also been politically contested. It survived a serious push toward revocation in 2021-2022 after council received almost 4,000 public submissions on the question — for the full account, see the culture deep-dive.