Garie Beach

Beaches in Melbourne: do any have clear blue water or white sand?

I'm moving to Melbourne next year and was curious... 1) if any of the beaches close to or around the city have clear blue water or white sand (like bondi beach in Sydney)? 2) generally what are the nicest beaches in Melbourne? 3) what is the closest beach to Monash Uni? i'm from Vancouver and am used to swimming in the cold pacific ocean. If anyone who's been to Melbourne knows what the beaches are like (for swimming, surfing, etc.) that would be awesome...

Public Comments

1. there are so many beautiful beaches. i love st kilda beach its right near the city and an amusement park with beautiful water and sand.
2. Bondi beach doesn't have white sand, its the normal yellowy sand colour. Only the islands tend to have white sands. The water is not clear blue either, more a green tinge really. Have you been to bondi or are you judging by pictures you've seen? Bells Beach in St Kilda has a good name as a surfing beach, don't know what it's like for swimming. They hold surfing pros at Bells Beach. To be honest with you, in Melbourne unless you're in the middle of a heat wave it doesn't really get hot enough to go swimming.
3. Aspendale beach has squeaky pale coloured sand and the water is often quite clear down there too. There are many other nice beaches but most have the usual yellowish sand. (Bondi's sand is the same colour and isn't white either.) Monash isn't particularly close to the bay, but Hampton and Black Rock and the other beaches further south on are are probably the easiest to get to. None of Melbourne's beaches have surf as they're all located within Port Phillip Bay and Mel is completely mistaken as to the location of Bells Beach which is nowhere near St Kilda and is in fact around 100km southwest of Melbourne. It's a great surf beach though it's a long way from town and the water is usually pretty cold.