Good news if you swim north of Cairns. Ellis Beach, the long ribbon of sand about 25 minutes up the Captain Cook Highway from Palm Cove, has a brand new surf life saving club. Better still, it is finally on the correct side of the road.
The new AUD $5 million Ellis Beach Surf Life Saving Club opened on Sunday 6 September 2026. Newsport Daily reports that the Federal Government contributed $3.5 million and the Queensland Government $1.5 million, closing out a campaign that had been running for roughly fifteen years.
It started with a nine-year-old and a letter
This is a genuinely lovely origin story. According to Newsport, the push began in 2011, when Ellis Beach nipper Sophie Alcorn, then nine years old, wrote to federal Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch after her friend Asha was struck by a car as the two girls crossed the highway. Entsch took the letter to Federal Parliament.
What followed was more than a decade of club members planning, fundraising and quietly refusing to let it drop, all so that kids would not have to cross a busy highway in their bathers to reach the water. The club itself is not new, it was founded back in 1957. What is new is the building, and the fact that the clubhouse, the flags and the beach are now all on the same side of the tarmac.
What this means if you are visiting
Ellis Beach is a patrolled beach, and it now has a proper modern base sitting right behind the flags. For visitors that matters more than it might sound, because the honest answer to “where can I swim north of Cairns” is a short list, and a patrolled beach with an active club on it belongs near the top of it.
Two things worth knowing before you go:
- Patrols are seasonal and they are not every day. Surf Life Saving Queensland lists the Ellis Beach volunteer patrol season as running roughly April to November, on weekends. Patrol hours shift through the season, so check the current times on Beachsafe on the day rather than trusting any figure written in a blog post, including this one.
- Stinger season still applies. Roughly November to May, marine stingers are a real consideration on every beach in the region, patrolled or not. Our guide to swimming safely in Cairns and Far North Queensland sets out what the authorities actually advise, including where the stinger enclosures are and what to do about them.
Swim between the flags, and if the flags are not up, treat the beach as unpatrolled and act accordingly.
Making a day of it
Ellis Beach is one of the better half-day trips out of the city, partly because there is almost nothing there, which is the point. The beach is long, the water is clear, and the highway drive up from Palm Cove is one of the best stretches of coast road in the country.
The Ellis Beach Bar and Grill sits right on the beachfront and runs live music on Sunday afternoons, with a courtesy bus that shuttles between Ellis Beach and Trinity Park. If you fancy a beer with your beach day and would rather not drive, that bus is the answer, though we would ring the venue to confirm the run before planning your afternoon around it.
Worth noting for the near future too: work has started on the Ellis Beach to Wangetti stage of the Wangetti Trail, which will eventually make this whole stretch of coast a lot more walkable.
More ideas along this coast in our Northern Beaches guide.
Source: Newsport Daily, 8 September 2026. Patrol season detail from Surf Life Saving Queensland. Check Beachsafe for current patrol times before you swim.
