February 5, 2026 — 11:45am
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Its white quartz sands are so pristine, they squeak when visitors scuff their feet on the beach. Offshore, those sands lend the water a sparkling, crystalline quality that shimmers from green to blue.
Welcome to Squeaky Beach, named Tourism Australia’s Best Australian Beach in 2024, and the runner-up in Lonely Planet’s list of the best beaches in the world in 2025.
Squeaky Beach, with its sparkling turquoise water and glistening white sand, is one of Australia’s top beaches.Alamy Stock Photo
But as natural wonders like this beach, on the east side of Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria, rise rapidly in popularity, advocates warn they are in danger of being “loved to death”.
In 2023, K-pop star Jennie from Blackpink posted photographs of herself sitting on the edge of a high cliff at the unfenced and popular Lincoln’s Rock lookout at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, outside Sydney, to her 80 million-plus followers on Instagram.
The post received more than 4.5 million likes and, since then, Blue Mountains City Council Mayor Mark Greenhill says, visitor numbers have exploded.
The rush of tourists has brought an increase in rubbish, illegal parking, traffic congestion and vandalism, including hundreds of people carving their initials and names into the rock. With no toilets at the previously obscure site, visitors have taken to defecating in the bush.
Lincoln’s Rock has closed for at least three months.Steven Siewert
The council closed the site last month for at least three months, citing safety concerns. Two people had previously fallen from the lookout and survived “horrific injuries”, but Greenhill feared deaths would follow.
While the tourist numbers at Wilsons Promontory are far lower than the 5 million tourists who visit the Blue Mountains every year, they have grown quickly.
In 2024, the same year Tourism Australia named Squeaky Beach as Australia’s best, the Victorian government estimated 400,000 visitors a year travelled to the Prom.
Last year, the official estimate was 500,000 annual visits, and this year more than 600,000 visitors are expected.
As word has spread about Squeaky Beach’s wild beauty, so too has the impact tourists leave on the formerly pristine location.
During the summer months, hundreds of tourists disembark from shuttle buses in waves onto the beach, some clambering over delicate dunes to marvel at the famous squeaks.
One former ranger, who asked not to be identified, worries the beach is in danger of being loved to “within an inch of its life”.
On a Friday last month, this masthead saw hundreds of tourists arriving by the busload for a curious stomp around the beach. Despite signs warning that the dunes are vulnerable, children played in them, sending waves of sand down the sides.
Squeaky Beach is famous not only for its sparkling waters and sands, but also for the boulders that line the shore.Getty Images/iStockphoto
In a statement, area chief ranger Brett Mitchell says visitors are eager to hear the famous squeak beneath their feet and see crystal clear waters roll into shore.
“But the surrounding sand dunes are fragile, living ecosystems with significant cultural heritage values. They provide vital feeding and nesting areas for small animals like the southern brown bandicoot and endangered hooded plover,” he says.
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“When visitors leave rubbish behind or trample, slide or jump on the dunes, it speeds up erosion and harms coastal plants that hold the dunes together.”
A Parks Victoria spokeswoman says fencing the dunes would be impractical, as they are dynamic and constantly shifting with wind and rain. Rangers regularly patrol and pick up rubbish at key visitor sites such as Squeaky Beach, she says.
So what’s the answer?
Parks Victoria launched a consultation to develop a new management plan for the Prom in 2023. A key idea raised in the consultation was limiting visitors to ensure the long-term sustainability of the park. The state government has twice delayed the draft plan it first promised in 2024.
The Parks Victoria spokeswoman says the agency is now working with traditional owners to develop the plan, and it would take a significant amount of time, given its scope and importance.
Victorian National Parks Association campaigner Jordan Crook says that, as population and tourism numbers increase, so too must the number of park rangers employed to manage invasive weeds, maintain tracks and protect national parks.
Last June, however, there were fewer full-time equivalent staff (801) at Parks Victoria than in June 1998 (913), according to annual report figures, and only a fraction are rangers.
In 1998, Victoria had a population of 4.6 million. In 2025, it was more than 7 million.
“It is concerning to see the numbers increasing of visitors, but the number of park rangers and people looking after the park declining at the same time, so it’s leading to the parks being loved to death,” Crook says.
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Bianca Hall is The Age’s environment and climate reporter, and has worked in a range of roles including as a senior writer, city editor, and in the federal politics bureau in Canberra.Connect via X, Facebook or email.From our partners