Parking
Use Cave Beach car park at the end of Cave Beach Road; the walk starts from its access aisle. A vehicle pass is required to enter Booderee National Park.
Overview
About Cave Beach to Bherwerre Beach Fire Trail Loop Walk
Why go
- Wetland wildlife and a broad ocean beach in one short loop
- The dune and blackbutt forest return adds variety
Heads up
- The return trades beach time for an unsealed fire trail
Map & elevation
The route
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
3 active Booderee alerts
- CautionH5 avian influenza detectedH5 avian influenza (bird flu) has been detected in a greater crested tern in Booderee National Park; the park remains open, but visitors must avoid contact with sick or dead wildlife.Official details
- ClosureIluka Beach access closedIluka Beach day-use area and beach-access staircase are closed while repair works are carried out, leaving Iluka Beach inaccessible via the beach track.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Booderee Tour Guide
Your drive to Cave Beach to Bherwerre Beach Fire Trail Loop Walk, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Booderee National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this trailhead
Cave Beach: Surf and Shoreline Caves0:00 / 0:32
“You're nearing Cave Beach's car park, with a walk through the day-use area to reach the sand. Come for the open ocean shore and surf; the caves are small, shallow openings in the rocky edge.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Booderee Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Booderee Botanic Gardens
- A Power Station Plan at Murrays
- Shelter Between the Burned Patches
- Who Scribbled on the Gums?
- 23 audio storiesacross Booderee’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Grey Kangaroo, Echidna, Red-necked Wallaby, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 14 trails, 33 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Cave Beach to Bherwerre Beach Fire Trail Loop Walk
A short loop, with a different way backThis 2.
This 2.8 km loop starts at Cave Beach car park, follows the main trail past the camping area and around Ryans Swamp to Bherwerre Beach, then returns on a fire trail across the dunes. Allow about an hour. It’s a good pick if you want a coast-and-wetland walk without giving most of the day to a hike. Grade 3 means a proper bush track rather than a flat beach stroll.
Look around Ryans SwampTake the track from the west side of the Cave Beach camping area around the swamp.
Take the track from the west side of the Cave Beach camping area around the swamp. This is the wildlife stretch: swamp hens, egrets and ducks are drawn to the wetland, and frogs, snakes and turtles live there too.
Beach out, fire trail backBherwerre is a long, south-facing ocean beach.
Bherwerre is a long, south-facing ocean beach. The one-way walk reaches it after about 900 m, then heads inland on the return. If you want a shorter outing, go to the beach and come back the same way for about 1.9 km total, skipping the fire-trail return. For a photo, walk a little alongshore and shoot down the open curve with the dune edge in frame; it shows the beach’s length better than pointing straight at the surf.
The dunes, then the practicalitiesThe fire trail crosses dunes that were revegetated with bitou bush in the late 1960s; the plant…
The fire trail crosses dunes that were revegetated with bitou bush in the late 1960s; the plant has since become a major weed on the NSW coast. Where the soil deepens, tall blackbutt forest replaces the dune vegetation. The Cave Beach campground is about 300 m from the car park and has public toilets, fresh water and cold-water showers. A vehicle pass is required to enter Booderee National Park, and pets aren’t permitted.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Booderee
202 sightingsGrey KangarooMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
26 sightingsEchidnaMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
16 sightingsRed-necked WallabyMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
116 sightingsSwamp WallabyMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
93 sightingsKookaburraMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
22 sightingsYellow-tailed Black CockatooMost seen around 5 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Booderee. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
