Australia's Most Accessible Beach - Social Well-Being Finalist - 2026 Tidy Towns Finalist
Some participants at Frankston's accessible beach pilot hadn't touched sand in decades.
Inspired by an accessible beach program in Nice, France, and adapted with a lived-experience advisory committee steering every decision, Frankston City Council ran Australia's Most Accessible Beach as a free pilot from December 2025 to February 2026: beach matting, specialist wheelchairs, hoists, shaded accessible loungers and trained staff and volunteers, all designed to get people with disability into the water alongside their families, not just watching from the car park.
The numbers were bigger than anyone expected. More than 456 people booked in, with another 241 using the accessible matting informally, and 74% of participants travelled from outside Frankston to get there. Every single participant who completed the feedback survey reported a health or wellbeing benefit from taking part.
What the council learned went beyond logistics: demand for accessible recreation is far larger than any council typically plans for, and small operational tweaks, better transfer equipment, refined bookings, mattered as much as the big-ticket infrastructure.
The X-factor is straightforward and overdue: a day at the beach, made possible for people who'd been quietly locked out of one of Australia's most ordinary pleasures.
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