Recommendable for a more relaxed experience, Noosa Shire's Eastern Beaches, such as Marcus Beach, are accessible by bus or car. Today I took a
620 Translink bus to Marcus Beach from Maroochydore to Noosa, making
Marcus Beach a quick stop off. I aimed to photograph the beach but there were no walking paths, so I followed some small signs to the beach where I found Tasman Trespasser Park, which had a barely noticeable path to the beach. While I was keen to just extract some finer details about this place I had passed many times, I actually found it pretty awesome, the combination of the path and rolling ocean as a great experience, it was wilderness - despite its urban proximity.
On the
visitsunshinecoast.com website, I found it described as an eastern beach of Noosa Shire and a relaxed feel and no lifeguard patrols but dog owners can use the beach for off-leash dog exercise. The place has extreme significance for indigenous people. At the article's conclusion, in the second last photo, I left a photo of a sign describing some of that cultural significance but do try and walk the path, it's got lots of those signs with great facts about the ecosystem and the indigenous relevance is interesting, provided you are respectful.
Grass, dunes and ocean, at Marcus Beach.
A few important points are, that I found despite the difficulty in researching this topic were:
The
Marcus Beach to Castaways Beach Trail seems the only way to get to the next town by foot (that town is called Castaways), following a trail mainly on the beach. The town preceding is Peregian Beach. I'm not sure whether to call them suburbs or towns as they aren't fully fused together.
The access point, Tasman Trespasser Park, is named after an extreme yet true story about a rower called Colin Quincy, who is legendary in Trans-Tasman crossing by trying to human power his way across the Tasman. He did indeed crash-land in Marcus Beach according to several reputable newspapers such as the
New Zealand Herald and
ABC - which described the community initiative to get the park named after Colin Quincy's boat, the Tasman Trespasser.
It should be added that there is also a book about his son's mission called
Tasman Trespasser II and I found a good search on Google was 'Colin Quincy Rower', but it's hard to link the sites as tonnes of stuff comes up, but the
New Zealand Herald link is a good wrap up related to the Marcus Beach termination of the voyage or better described as a brave and humble landing, with incredible human achievement involved - when he made it to Marcus Beach, he'd just crossed the Tasman in 1977 with a rowboat.
Marcus Beach facing south.
Beach path close to beach from Tasman Trespasser Park.
Roundabout at David Low Way near bus stop. Access to Melaleuca Street.
The main idea is to disembark the 620 bus at the Marcus Beach bus stop and walk to Tasman Trespasser park, you turn down Melaleuca Street at the roundabout on David Low Way, and you should see the park on the left on Tristania Drive as you face in the ocean's direction.
It's difficult to find the pathway entrance as it is very overgrown scrub but as seen in the photos, it's a pretty good path. I saw a lot of dog owners there but they seemed to be keen just to leave you alone. It was though a deserted beach, and, due to the pet owners in the distance, was safe and secure. I'm not sure if there is any commerce at Marcus Beach but do correct me if I am wrong. It's not a commercialised place, yet, it suits a couple or solo traveller who might want to stop on the way to Noosa and see something a bit different - it's a good stop off. Of course, you can't take a family there, the water is too choppy and the beach is not patrolled. I realise you can't build much there, for some reason you can't have a patrolled beach there, but the waves look pretty choppy. Even so, it's definitely got something going for it.
Bus stop useful for access to beach- as the David Low way has no walking path at that stretch.
Tasman Trespasser Park, Marcus Beach.
This visit was only a short stopover but when getting some background for my trip, I found Marcus Beach only gets little coverage in general from other travellers yet due to being a little bit adventurous, I found something pretty great. When I walked to the beach itself, I saw some motorists stopped off there as well, and accessed the beach path, so that was good to see that people were accessing such a beautiful place. It's a hard topic to research, the ecosystem is very interesting there, and there were signs posted frequently to educate walkers about the scrub. I actually found my visit unlocked this incredible place, where you can beach walk up to the next town as well as find out about the legendary Colin Quincy.
Tristania Drive, Marcus Beach, near David Low Way, where Tasman Trespasser Park is located for the beach walk access.
Sign is worth a read before walking the path.
Example 1 of the many signs on the beach access path.
Example 2 of the many signs on the beach access path.
About the beach bean, more signage at Marcus Beach.
All photos courtesy of author taken Wednesday 24-02-2021.
