Australia has a 47,000km long spectacular coast line including its islands. Many beautiful sand beaches, which offer ideal swimming, diving, snorkeling and surfing opportunities, are a part of this beauty.

Doing water sports is a fun part of life in Australia but it may also be dangerous if enough attention is not paid. For example swimming at places like river mouths is not recommended because the water is usually polluted at such places and some see/river dwellers may be dangerous. So for water sports, it is wise to prefer those beaches where an orange colored "life-guard on duty" flag stands. A good protection against the sun is also necessary since the strong sunlight can easily cause skin cancer in Australia due to the deployment of the ozone layer. Using sun block, covering the head, using surfers suits to cover the body and the neck, and putting on thongs are some of the easiest precautions that can be taken.

As mentioned above, it is important to watch out which flag is set on the beach before starting to have fun. There are four possible colors of flags:

Green Flag : Good swimming conditions
Orange Flag : Life-guard on duty. Swimming possible more or less without any danger.
Yellow Flag : The swimmers should be careful.
Red Flag : Swimming is forbidden.

There is a large number of beaches in Australia. Alone NSW has over 70 beaches. Among these, the most famous one is surely Bondi Beach in Sydney. It is usually overpopulated by the surfers. Other than Bondi, there is Sunshine Coast on the north of Brisbane and Gold Coast on the south. Hyams Beach at Jervis Bay is renowned of having the whitest sand on the world. Ninty Miles Beach close to Melbourne is one of the most beautiful beaches one can ever see. Four Miles Beach in the north of Cairns and Magnetic Island close to Townsville also attract many tourists all year around.