The Spit Bridge is a steel and concrete bascule bridge, identifiable by the tall, imposing control tower positioned at its center above the roadway. It opened in nineteen fifty-eight to carry heavy traffic across Middle Harbour, replacing…
Spit Bridge to Manly Walk
This scenic coastal walk takes you past stunning harbor beaches, quiet bays, and dramatic lookouts as you journey from the Spit Bridge to Manly Wharf.
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1. Spit bridge
2. Fisher Bay
Fisher Bay is recognizable by the solitary houseboat moored just offshore, a wooden cottage structure sitting atop a steel-hulled ammunition barge. This vessel has occupied this exact spot in Middle Harbour since nineteen thirty-two.
3. Sandy Bay
Sandy Bay is defined by its extensive intertidal sand flats, which represent the largest tidal range found anywhere in Sydney Harbour. Located along Sandy Bay Road in the suburb of Clontarf, this sheltered,…
4. Clontarf Beach
Clontarf Beach is a quiet harbor beach in Middle Harbour, distinguished by a tidal swimming enclosure and a grassy reserve filled with large Norfolk Island pines and Port Jackson figs. It is a starting point for the Spit to Manly walk, a…
5. Castle Rock
Castle Rock is a secluded, thirty-meter-long harbor beach defined by large, free-standing sandstone boulders that sit directly on the sand. Located within the Sydney Harbour National Park in the suburb of Clontarf, it is tucked into a…
6. Grotto Point
Grotto Point is a rocky headland on the northern side of Sydney Harbour, distinguished by a white, domed lighthouse that features a horizontal slit for its beam. Constructed in nineteen ten and first lit in September nineteen eleven, this…
7. Arabanoo lookout at Dobroyd Head
Arabanoo Lookout sits on the ridge of Dobroyd Head, a headland reaching into the water at Balgowlah Heights. This clifftop spot provides expansive views of the Pacific Ocean, along with North Head and South Head at the entrance to Sydney…
8. Reef Beach
Reef Beach is a secluded eighty-meter strip of sand nestled within the bushland of Dobroyd Head. This small cove faces North Harbour and is defined by a large rock formation said to resemble a castle, which gave the beach its name. It sits…
9. Forty Baskets Beach
Forty Baskets Beach is marked by its quiet, enclosed tidal swimming pool that sits in the calm waters of North Harbour. The beach itself is a small, sandy stretch tucked away along the bushland path between The Spit and Manly.
10. Fairlight Beach Rockpool
Fairlight Beach Rockpool is a walled, thirty-meter square swimming area built directly into the rocks at the edge of Sydney Harbour. Unlike many other harbor baths that rely on shark nets, this pool features permanent stone walls, giving…
11. Manly Wharf
Manly Wharf stands out for its wide, curved entrance and a prominent clock tower decorated with fins, a design created in the modernist style of the early nineteen forties. It serves as the primary gateway for ferries traveling the nine…