September 3, 2026 — 5:00am
Beloved by beachgoers and Brisbanites for more than 60 years, Queensland’s Tangalooma Island Resort has taken a multimillion-dollar punt and opened Australia’s first year-round beachfront cabana club.
But will it be enough to attract visitors from nearby Brisbane and beyond?
Despite its sprawling coastline, Australia has been slow to adopt the beach club concept prolific in places such as Indonesia and southern Europe.
While beach clubs aren’t strictly new to Australia, such venues have largely been pool clubs or temporary beach pop-ups due to strict environmental zoning, native title considerations and coastal erosion protections that make building permanent commercial infrastructure directly on coastal land notoriously difficult.
