Looking for somewhere for a dog friendly, or wheelchair friendly long weekend on the New South Wales coast? We were looking for somewhere that was BOTH dog friendly AND wheelchair friendly, for us to have a long weekend away with our 3 fur babies.
Forster Tuncurry are twin towns located on the mid North Coast of New South Wale in Australia, almost midway between Sydney and Brisbane. The Foster Tuncurry area boasts beautiful dog friendly beaches and accessible lakeside strolls, making it the perfect destination for us to visit.
As a kid, we spent almost every winter school holidays in Forster visiting with family friends and visiting family who live there. Last time I visited Forster was 2005, so I was keen for a trip down memory lane. I was also interested to see whether Forster-Tuncurry had changed much, especially in terms of accessibility.
Read on to find about our long weekend adventures and the best dog friendly and wheelchair friendly places to visit in the Forster Tuncurry region.
What is the difference between Forster and Tuncurry?
Forster and Tuncurry are located on Lake Wallis, and connected by a large white bridge, with a population of around 21,000 people.
Forster on the southern side of lake has a busier, holiday vibe. There are several family friendly smaller-sized beaches (e.g., 1 Mile Beach) to choose from, clifftop lookouts and walks, and nearby national parks.
The main streets of Forster are full of trendy cafés and shops. There are several clubs including Club Forster (wheelchair friendly, great food with multiple restaurants, and excellent outdoor kids’ playground).
Tuncurry on the northern side is much quieter. There are some nice lakeside walks and some quieter long-stretching beaches (e.g., 9 Mile Beach). The main street has a few cafés, a cinema, and a few shops. Tuncurry is closer to some quieter coastal beaches and headlands for those looking for a more peaceful getaway.
Which is better? I’ve spent more time at Forster so have a bit of nostalgic bias there, and I love the beaches and lakeside. However, being a bit older and spending some time in Tuncurry on this visit, I enjoyed the quieter side of the lake much more than I thought I would.
Main Beach
Main beach is a very small beach right in the centre of Foster. At the northern end, there is the surf club and break wall. And the south end, ocean baths and bushy Headland. There is a concrete footpath next to the road that goes all the way along the beach.
Main Beach is where we stayed when I was a kid. I have many fond memories of daily walks to the Natural Waffle for ice creams, spotting dolphins from the balcony of our holiday apartment, and digging man-size holes in the sand – in which, our tall friend Chris got stuck headfirst in!
Returning to Main Beach, I was very pleased to see it had hardly changed. There were a few new high-rise buildings, but our trusty old 3-storey holiday apartment, Hibiscus Court, was still standing (just). The Ocean Baths looked exactly the same. Although, as a kid I never paid any attention to the ramp access, but that was definitely a detail I picked up this time.
Dad went for a sunset swim on the beach. Me, mum, and the dogs found a park bench on a grassy area right next to the beach, with a great view, to sit and watch the beach and the dolphins cruising past.
We parked at the southern end, where there is a disabled car park right next to the Ocean Baths. There is a concrete path along the road behind the beach that goes from the baths right up to the surf club.
Bicentennial walk and Bennett’s Head
The Bicentennial walk is a 4km path that goes from Main Beach Forster along the clifftops and down to One Mile Beach. This walkway has stunning views of beaches and cliff formations. It’s a great spot for dolphin and whale watching.
Unfortunately, not all of the trail is wheelchair accessible, however there are some sections you can visit. The section from Main Beach through to pebbly beach has some steps, so you need to detour via North and Head streets. Similar, you would need to go on the road in sections between Bicentennial Park and Bennett’s head.
Bicentennial Park is one of the more accessible parts of the trail. There is accessible parking, public toilets, and a paved walkway. This section of the trail has some of the best views as well, as you are looking out to the Tanks, a beautiful rock formation with rockpools.
The other accessible section is Bennett’s head lookout. Here, there is a lookout extending out off the cliff, with spectacular views north to the beaches, and very pretty views down to the base of the cliffs. Visiting in early October, we spotted a lot of humpback whales breaching and frolicking off the headland.
The lookout has pretty good visibility for wheelchair users. I was able to see through the vertical metal fencing. There were a few people around but not too crowded, and I just had to wait a minute for people to move aside for me to get a good view.
This lookout is at the end of a cul-de-sac, and although there is no specified disabled parking, it’s quite enough that you can usually get a park and safe getting in/out of your vehicle. The lookout itself is paved and smooth, although you need to dodge potholes in the car park.
One Mile Beach Rainforest boardwalk
One Mile Beach unfortunately isn’t overly wheelchair accessible, due to sand dunes and rainforest lining the beach. Near the surf club, there is a grassy area with wheelchair accessible parking nearby that you can get some views of the beach.
There is, however, a bit of a hidden gem that our relatives told us about, the Rainforest boardwalk, also known as the John Ward Rainforest Walk.
The boardwalk is about 1 km long and takes you through some littoral rainforest in the dunes behind One Mile Beach. The boardwalk sits under a low canopy rainforest made up of palms, fernery, and some pine. There are some information panels with interesting facts about the rainforest.
At the end of the boardwalk, the rainforest opens out to a timber viewing platform overlooking the northern end of One Mile Beach. There are some steps down to the beach, and this part of the beach is dog friendly at certain times of the day, so I was able to watch my dogs in the beach from the platform.
Access to the boardwalk is through a car park at the northern end of the beach, near the golf club. There is wheelchair accessible parking at the entrance. The boardwalk doesn’t have any steps (excluding the steps down to the beach at the end) and only has some mild slopes that are easy to navigate in the wheelchair.
Forster lakeside and Break wall
The Forster lakeside has some lovely spots. Along the lake, you’ll find oyster leases, boat sheds where you can rent paddle boards, boat ramps, fish cleaning stations, and a break wall heading out to the ocean. This is a great place to stroll and watch people enjoying lakeside activities.
We went for a lovely morning stroll with our dogs out to the break wall, where we could see a surf competition to the south on Main Beach, and sweeping golden beaches to the north.
Heading back in towards the lake, you get beautiful views of the white bridge connecting Forster and Tuncurry (there is an accessible concrete path across the bridge if you are interested).
We passed a fish cleaning station, where there were a group of pelicans (or should I say Squadron or scoop of pelicans) waiting for their lunch. Our dogs sat mesmerised watching the pelicans. My little Australian terrier sat on my lap for safety, since she was small enough for them to eat (my grandparents once saw a Chihuahua being scooped up in the mouth of a a pelican in Forster)!
From the town centre, there are concrete paths along the lake and the break wall, making the lakeside wheelchair, stroller, and family friendly. There are some disabled parking spaces along the lake, we found the easiest parking spot to be near the boat ramp heading out to the break wall.
Tuncurry Foreshore Walk
Heading over the bridge to the northern Tuncurry side of the lake, there are also some nice, dog friendly and wheelchair friendly walks. It took us about an hour return from the bridge to break wall.
Something I noticed in Tuncurry was some really cool children’s playgrounds. I spotted at least 3 playgrounds, including a splash park, that I would have loved if I was a kid. There were also lots of barbecue areas making it a very family friendly area.
We wandered past the Tuncurry rock pool, which was very popular given it was 30+ degrees that day. The rock pool doesn’t really have any rocks, it’s more of a small, sandy beach with minimal to no waves. There was a wheelchair ramp heading down to the water as well. Nearby, there is a café and some public toilets.
There is a nice walk out to the break wall. Here, you are next to the dog friendly 9 Mile Beach. While the wheelchair can’t get onto the beach, you get a great view of the dogs enjoying the beach.
There are concrete paths lining the lake most of the way from the bridge out to the break wall. We did have to detour onto the road just a little near the fishing Co-op.
Diamond Beach
A 25-minute drive north from Forster Tuncurry is Diamond Beach. Diamond beach is a sleepy little coastal village. This is place you might like to stay if you are looking for somewhere to just relax by the beach.
The town mostly has houses and holiday accommodation, with a little café and shop for the necessities.
Midway along the beach, there is a wheelchair accessible beach viewing platform. There is wheelchair parking space right at the entrance to the beach track and easy access onto the timber viewing platform.
The viewing platform had incredible views along the northern coast. The golden sands of the beach were practically deserted. The surf was pretty wild that day, so no one was swimming.
The beach is dog friendly, and our water loving dogs absolutely loved zooming along the sand in an out of the waves. I had a great view of them from the viewing platform, as well as spotting a pod of dolphins and lots of whales.
Black Head
Located 10 minutes back towards Forster Tuncurry is Black Head. This is a cute little sandy cove, lined with grassy picnic areas under Norfolk pine trees and some ocean baths.
The beach itself is not accessible, but you can see the beach quite well from the grassy picnic areas. You can also get close to the ocean swimming pools via the bitumen road near the surf club.
We had some fish and chips in the park looking out towards the beach. Being a long weekend, it was pretty busy and we had to wait to get a table. Although, the picnic tables cleared very quickly once a 5-foot carpet python slithered across the grass!
The grass picnic area does have some steep sections, but there is a concrete path that is much flatter going across the bay and some picnic tables that are flatter to get to. There are some disabled parks at either end of the beach.
Accommodation options?
Forster and Tuncurry have a variety of accommodation options ranging from holiday houses, high-rise apartments, caravan parks, and motels.
There are some great local holiday rental companies (I try to support local wherever possible) with accessible options. The caravan parks have some accessible cabins that my relatives tell me are great. I’ve also previously stayed in a motel which had a good accessible room.
If you wish to stay at Diamond Beach, there is an incredible wheelchair and dog friendly holiday house called The Seahorse that you can rent. This has ramp entry, carer suite, adjustable beds and medical equipment available on request, and a pool hoist. It is a little pricey, and as we wanted to stay closer to Forster, we didn’t end up staying there.
As we needed somewhere dog and wheelchair friendly, we instead opted for a holiday rental right in the middle of Forster that was dog friendly. As you can imagine, there are not many places that are both wheelchair and dog friendly, so we did have to compromise a bit on accessibility.
The house ticked many of our accessibility boxes: ramp entry, single level, room under the beds for my Hoyer lift, and I could get into the bathroom. The shower had a step into it so I couldn’t use that, but we were able to manage with a portable shower hose.
Overall impressions
We had such a great weekend visiting Forster Tuncurry. It was perfect for us to visit some pretty places, catch up with family, and enjoy a holiday with our dogs (who slept very well on the drive home!).
There is a lot to see and do when it’s sunny, although when the weather is bad there are not a lot of indoor activities.
Overall, it’s a great place to visit if you are in a wheelchair, travelling with dogs, or looking for a family friendly destination.
Accessibility wise, there were some great Lakeside, rainforest, and cliff walks that I could access. Diamond beach and Black head were also great for an accessible day-excursion.
Before the trip, I did find it very hard to find information online about accessible walks and activities. Most of the tourist destination websites had limited or no accessibility information, so we mostly relied on our previous experience visiting and the knowledge of our local relatives.
Ratings
Wow Factor: 4/5 that there are some beautiful beaches and places along relates to visit. It has a coastal vibe that leaves you feeling relaxed and happy.
Cobble index: 4/5 The pathways along the lake, beach fronts, and in town are very smooth and modern. The rainforest boardwalk was very wheelchair friendly.
Barrier free barometer: 3/5 the hardest part was finding information about accessibility. There are a lot of accessible places, they just need to be advertised more. There are some beaches and walks that were not accessible due to steps and dunes.
Want more?
Looking for other accessible places to visit in New South Wales?