Cylinder Beach on North Stradbroke Island has been named the state’s top beach.
Releasing its third annual list of top beaches, Surf Life Saving Queensland rated Cylinder ahead of Noosa on the Sunshine Coast and Greenmount on the Gold Coast.
Mooloolaba (Sunshine Coast) and Coolangatta (Gold Coast) rounded out the top five, while Alma Bay at Magnetic Island made the list at number 10.
Surf lifesavers have previously rated Cylinder highly in its annual list.
It also proposes a major move into the Redlands at the Cleveland pool complex, with competitions proposed for Raby Bay and North Stradbroke to feature highly in plans
SLSQ chief operating officer George Hill said many things had been considered when compiling the list.
“Safety is obviously our primary focus and, with that in mind, we considered a wide range of factors including everything from patrol times and services, right through to its incident history, coastal conditions and the quality of visitor information on display,” he said.
“After that we looked at other areas such as how user-friendly we thought the beach was, and this included things such as its location, access to parking and public transport, facilities and cleanliness.
“Cylinder was a clear winner this year. It has been quite protected from the strong prevailing winds we experienced and that has created a lot of sand along the beach.
“There were less strong sweeps, providing great conditions for swimmers.
“It’s also patrolled 365 days a year and has a lot of facilities and parking nearby, not to mention some of the best lifeguards and volunteer surf lifesavers in the country, proving very popular for families holidaying on the island,” Mr Hill said.
SLSQ recorded more than 304,331 beach visitors at Cylinder, with surf lifesavers and lifeguards performing 30 rescues, 3677 first aid treatments and 20,725 preventative actions in the 2016/17 season.
Last year’s winner, Burleigh Heads, dropped several places this year, largely due to north-east winds.
“Burleigh has copped a lot of NE winds, which has sculpted out quite a gutter in the front of the beach, which poses a bit more of a risk to young children and families than in previous years,” he said.
A surprising debut on this year’s list is Streets Beach at South Bank in Brisbane.
“We can understand that a lot of people may question Streets Beach, but when looking out our criteria, it rated very well,” Mr Hill said.
“It has extended hours of supervision, good facilities for families, and provides an alternative to families looking to escape the heat of summer but not able to head to the coast.
With Queensland home to hundreds of beaches, Mr Hill acknowledged there might be some people who disagreed with the decision to crown Cylinder as number one.
“There are so many beautiful beaches up and down Queensland’s coastline and everyone has their own favourite little spot they like to go to,” she said.
“Trying to narrow it down to one winner is always a difficult job, but in a way that’s a good problem for us.
“It shows how many wonderful beaches there are in Queensland.”
With summer officially kicking off this week, lifesavers and lifeguards are bracing for a significant influx of visitors over the coming weeks and Mr Hill urged anyone looking to cool off in the surf to put safety first at all times.
“At the end of the day, we don’t mind what beach you go to, as long as you play it safe and always swim between the red and yellow flags,” he said.
“The flagged areas not only represent the safest conditions on that particular beach, but are also patrolled by qualified surf lifesavers and lifeguards.”
Top 10 beaches are Cylinder Beach, Noosa, Greenmount, Mooloolaba, Coolangatta, Alexandra Headland, Southbank, Kings Beach, Burleigh Heads and Alma Bay.
