The Richmond River Bar funnels swell directly onto Lighthouse Beach, creating banks that hold shape through shifting seasons. You'll watch sets roll in from the headland viewing platform, where the 1879 lighthouse—still operational—casts its beam across the approach each night. Mornings bring offshore winds that groom the face clean, and by mid-afternoon the nor'easter chop turns the water from navy to froth-flecked jade.
“One of the few Australian surf beaches where an active lighthouse beam sweeps across the line-up after dark.”
Credit: UnsplashWhite cliffs over a desert beach
The beach runs for nearly two kilometers, widening as it stretches toward Shelly Beach to the north. At low tide, rock platforms emerge near the point, pooling with anemones and small bream. Families claim the sheltered southern end while surfers work the deeper water off the rocks. A pod of dolphins patrols the break most mornings, their dorsals slicing through the line-up with casual indifference to the boards around them.
Ballina's fishing fleet motors past the headland at dawn and dusk, trawlers silhouetted against apricot skies. The foreshore park offers barbecue shelters under she-oaks that whistle in the sea breeze, and the lighthouse keeper's cottage now serves as a small maritime museum. You can walk the coastal track south to the river mouth, where anglers cast for tailor from the breakwall and pelicans loiter for scraps.
