Steamers Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in Jervis Bay - a rugged and remote sweep of golden sand backed by steep headlands. It’s also really quiet, especially compared to other beaches in the national park. But there’s a catch: it’s not a great beach for swimming due to large rips, shallow rock shelves and the resident shark population. However, this makes it the perfect option for cooler weather or when you just fancy a paddle.
Despite the lack of swimming opportunities, Steamers Beach is well worth visiting. It has a different feel to many others in the area, more wild and untouched. You can walk the full length of the beach and marvel at how you have this 700m stretch of pristine sand all to yourself.
Here’s what to expect from a visit to Steamers Beach.
The walk to Steamers Beach
The stats
Distance: 4.6km return
Elevation gain: 160m
Difficulty: Easy, but not flat
Trailhead: Steamers Beach Car Park, Jervis Bay
Summary: The walk to Steamers Beach is all on a well maintained track - the majority of which is a bushy fire trail. As you get closer to the beach, there are a series of steepish stairs to negotiate, but they are wooden and therefore don’t get slippery.
You can walk directly to the beach and back, or make it part of the longer St Georges Head circuit, taking in several more beaches and lookouts. In this guide we’re covering the shortest route to Steamers Beach.
It’s worth noting that the beach falls within the Booderee National Park fee zone, more details at the end of the post.
Starting the trail: through the bush
From the Steamers Beach parking area, the walk heads onto the wide, well graded fire trail.
The decimal points aren’t too visible - it says 2.3km, not 23km!
The fire trail is nice and bushy, so there’s plenty of shade and it feels more like a proper bushwalk than your average exposed fire trail.
The first 250m are flat before the track begins to undulate. The undulations are never steep or slippery.
At the 1.1km mark you’ll come to a point where a small creek crosses the path.
After recent heavy rain you may need to use the rock in the water to get across with dry boots, but I imagine this is usually an incredibly shallow crossing.
Just beyond this you’ll see the signpost for Steamers Beach and follow the track left.
The path is now almost entirely downhill, but it’s generally very gentle with just one or two very short steeper bits, none of which are slippery.
We saw lots of kangaroos along this stretch, happily they weren’t phased by our presence and posed for a few pics!
Descending to the beach
Just over 1.7km into the trail you’ll reach another signposted junction and head left towards the beach.
You could make a short detour to a lookout from here before heading onto the beach - which was our original intention - but we didn’t make it there in the end so can’t comment on how good the view is!
From the junction you have another 200m of fire trail downhill before you hit the stairs.
They begin as wide, fairly shallow wooden steps before you hit a brief flatter section and then the final 150m to the beach are more steep and the stairs are narrower.
However, they are wooden and even when waterlogged were easy to walk on. The last 50m down to the beach are on a metal walkway and you’ll reach the sand 2.3km after leaving the car park.
The views along this final stretch of the track are absolutely glorious, especially if you’re lucky enough to see the beach in full sun.
For us in the afternoon in autumn, the beach was half in shadow, but it still looked fabulous.
Steamers Beach
Steamers Beach is 700m long and it’s well worth walking its full length to really take in the scale.
The waves were pretty big when we visited giving it a much more rugged feel than the calmer white sand beaches Jervis Bay is famous for.
As mentioned, the beach isn’t good for swimming which means that a visit in the cooler temperatures is ideal.
At the far end of the beach there’s a small rock shelf you can climb onto (this may not be possible at high tide) which offers a great view back over the beach, as well as out to sea.
We were scouting for whales, though we didn’t get lucky this time (the walk from Murrays Beach offers better whale spotting opportunities if you’re visiting between May and October).
When you’re ready to leave the beach you can either retrace your steps or head along the circuit track - though this is a much longer option.
The signpost said the circuit is 11.4km, but I don’t think this includes side trails to the various beaches, so expect it to be longer.
Getting to the trailhead for Steamers Beach
The walk to Steamers Beach begins at the Steamers Beach car park in Booderee National Park. The last 2km of the road to the car park are gravel, but at time of writing the road is in great condition and suitable for any vehicle.
It’s around 20km and a 30 minute drive from Huskisson and 39km and a 45 minute drive from Nowra. It’s just under three hours from Sydney CBD.
There aren’t any facilities at the trailhead, but as you drive into the national park you’ll pass the visitor centre which has toilets.
The Booderee National Park entry fee
The walk to Steamers Beach falls into the fee zone for the Booderee National Park. Currently that fee is $13 for a vehicle to enter the park for 48 hours. This means you can technically visit across three days on the same ticket if you time it right.
There are concessions and annual passes available and as prices will no doubt change over time, you can see the current rates here.
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