Southport Beach, Fleurieu Peninsula: Why visit this Port Noarlunga beach?

At the mouth of the Onkaparinga River, Southport Beach on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula offers a surf beach and a calm river for paddleboarding and kayaking.

Southport Beach is one of several excellent Fleurieu Peninsula beaches to the south of Adelaide, South Australia. It’s also a regular fixture on lists of the best beaches in Australia.

Southport Beach effectively runs into Port Noarlunga Beach and faces due west. By the standards of Fleurieu Peninsula beaches, there’s relatively good surf here, too. Southport Beach is fairly exposed, and while the surf rarely gets high, it is pretty consistent.

Surfing at Southport Beach, Port Noarlunga, South Australia. Photo by Samuel Price.

Mouth of the Onkaparinga River at Southport Beach

However, it’s not really the surf of Gulf St Vincent that makes Southport Beach so appealing. The distinctive factor is the Onkaparinga River, which empties out into the gulf at the southern end of the beach.

The weaving Onkaparinga River covers creates a narrow spit of sand, and cuts through sand bars. This leads to a magical vision of blue water threading through little rolling dunes of sand. It’s highly photogenic, especially If you take your shots from the wooden steps down to the beach.

Activities at Southport Beach, Adelaide

The other major factor in favour of Southport Beach is that you’ve got the choice of the sea or the river.

If you’d prefer a less intense pursuit, such as paddleboarding or kayaking, you can go near the river mouth without having waves to contend with.

Fishing at Southport Beach, South Australia

The position at the mouth of the Onkaparinga River also makes Southport Beach pretty good for fishing.

With such a wide range of appeal, you might expect this Port Noarlunga beach to be frenetically busy. But having to walk a bit, and cross a bridge, to get there tends to keep visitor numbers surprisingly low.

Other Fleurieu Peninsula attractions near Port Noarlunga include Onkaparinga River National Park and the McLaren Vale wineries.