01
Cannonvale Beach
Western end. A long, quiet beach popular with families and dog walkers (off-leash area at the eastern end). Local fish & chips at Boathouse Apartments.
Airlie Beach · Free · Walking · Sunrise/sunset
The BicentennialBoardwalk
A flat, free four-kilometre walking path that links almost every Airlie Beach attraction along the foreshore — the kind of walk where locals do their thinking and tourists end up taking more photos than they planned to.
FreePaved & flatPram & wheelchair friendlyAlways open
- Length
- ~4 km one way
- Surface
- Paved & boardwalk
- Gradient
- Flat
- Cost
- Free
- Time
- 1 – 1.5 hr one way
- Lit
- Partial (town section)
One path, every reason to stop.
Built to mark Australia's bicentennial in 1988, this is the walking spine of Airlie Beach. It links Cannonvale Beach at the western end with Coral Sea Marina at the eastern, and threads past the lagoon, the foreshore, the boardwalk markets and almost every cafe in town along the way.
The path is fully sealed, flat, and wide enough to share with prams, joggers and the occasional rented e-scooter. Sections of it are genuine boardwalk over mangrove inlets; other parts are concrete promenade with palm shade overhead. There are benches, lookouts and free water bubblers every few hundred metres.
It's the walk locals use to clear their heads. Sunrise crew runs the path in groups before work. Dog walkers, retirees, parents with prams — they're all on it before 9am. By mid-morning the foreshore section is busier and more touristy; late afternoon and evening it gets quieter and prettier again.
Doing the full 4km end-to-end takes about an hour at a normal pace, longer with photo stops. Most visitors do shorter sections — lagoon to marina is a popular 2km stretch with a meal at either end.
Best stretches: Lagoon to Coral Sea Marina (2 km) is the most scenic short walk. Cannonvale Beach to Lagoon (2 km) is the local-favourite morning walk with quieter views.
Along the way
Stops worth making.
02
Mangrove boardwalks
Two raised timber sections cross tidal mangrove flats — keep an eye out for fiddler crabs and the occasional mud crab.
03
Airlie Beach Lagoon
Roughly the midpoint. Cool off, grab a coffee, then carry on. Also the start of most Airlie events.
04
The foreshore parklands
Free BBQs, picnic shelters, public art, Sunday morning markets along the path between the lagoon and the marina.
05
Coral Sea Marina
Eastern terminus. Plenty of dining and drinking options to celebrate finishing the walk.
06
Sunrise & sunset
The walk faces east-south-east, so sunrise lights up the water beautifully. Sunset is softer but still good — silhouettes the boats.
Quick practicals.
What to know before you set off.
When to walk
Sunrise to 9am is the best window — cool, light is gorgeous. After 5pm is the second-best. Avoid the middle of summer days.
Where to start
From the lagoon for the shorter, prettier section. From Cannonvale Beach if you want the full end-to-end.
Accessibility
Fully wheelchair and pram accessible. The whole path is paved or solid boardwalk with no steps.
Safety
Lit through the town section at night. The Cannonvale end is darker after sundown — bring a torch.
Pair it with
What to do at each end.
What the walk is actually like
The Bicentennial Boardwalk runs roughly four kilometres along the Airlie Beach foreshore between the Lagoon and Coral Sea Marina, and it is the spine of the town on foot.
It is flat, sealed and largely boardwalk over the water's edge, which makes it one of the most accessible walks in the region — usable with a pram, a wheelchair or tired legs. There are no steps on the main route.
Allow about an hour end to end at a comfortable pace, or forty minutes if you are walking with purpose. Most people do it in sections rather than as a single out-and-back.
What you pass
Starting at the Lagoon and heading north-east, the boardwalk runs past the foreshore lawns, the memorial areas and a series of small beaches and rocky points.
The mangrove sections are the surprise. The walkway carries you over tidal mangrove habitat, and at low tide the mudflats below are alive with crabs. Mangroves are the nursery for a large share of the fish in these waters, which is worth knowing as you walk over them.
The route ends at Coral Sea Marina, where the charter boats and superyachts berth and where most of the island departures leave from.
Along the way there are shaded seats, water fountains and several points where you can drop down to the sand.
Timing it
Early morning is the best of it — flat light on the water, the islands visible across the Passage, and considerably cooler.
Sunset is the other window, though Airlie Beach faces roughly north-east, so the sun sets behind the hills rather than over the water. The light on the islands is still good.
The middle of a summer day is hot and the shade is intermittent. If you are walking between about ten and three from November to April, take water and a hat seriously.
Tide affects the character rather than the access — high tide brings the water up under the boardwalk, low tide exposes the flats and the crabs.
Swimming along the way
The beaches along the boardwalk look inviting and there is an important caveat.
Marine stinger season runs roughly late October to May, and during it the open water along this foreshore is not somewhere to swim casually. Box jellyfish and Irukandji are both present in coastal waters through those months.
The Airlie Beach Lagoon at one end of the walk is treated fresh water, stinger-free and open year-round — which is precisely why it exists and why it anchors the foreshore.
Outside stinger season the bay beaches are used, though they are tidal and shallow rather than surf beaches.
Combining it with the rest of the foreshore
The boardwalk is a connector as much as a destination, and it works best folded into a morning.
The standard local shape: a swim at the Lagoon, the walk along the boardwalk, coffee at the Marina, and back along the main street. That is a couple of hours and it costs nothing but the coffee.
On Saturday mornings the Airlie Beach markets run on the foreshore, which turns the same walk into a longer one.
Accessibility along the route
This is the most accessible route in Airlie Beach by a distance, and worth spelling out because so little else here is.
The main boardwalk is flat, sealed and step-free along its length, which makes it usable with a wheelchair, a pram or limited mobility. The surface is boardwalk and concrete rather than sand or gravel.
Seating is spaced along the route, and there are shaded sections, though not continuously. Toilets and water are available at the Lagoon end and at the marina end.
The connections off the boardwalk down to the beaches involve steps or sand in places, so the beach access itself is not step-free even where the walkway is.
Wildlife along the water
The boardwalk passes tidal habitat, and there is more to see than the view across the Passage.
The mangrove sections are the best of it. At low tide the mudflats below are covered in crabs, and the sideways scuttle across the mud is genuinely entertaining to watch.
Shorebirds feed on the exposed flats — herons, egrets and migratory waders in the warmer months. Ospreys and kites work the water above.
Out on the water, turtles surface within sight of the walkway, and in whale season from June to October humpbacks pass through the Passage and are occasionally visible from shore on a calm day.
Running and cycling it
The boardwalk is a shared path and it is well used by locals for exercise, particularly at first light before the heat arrives.
Four kilometres each way makes an eight-kilometre out-and-back, flat the whole distance, with water available at both ends.
Cyclists share the route. It narrows in the boardwalk sections, so slowing and calling is the etiquette rather than the exception.
The best short version
If you do not have time for the full four kilometres, the section from the Lagoon towards the marina gives you the mangroves and the best of the water views within about twenty minutes.
Turn around at any point — the boardwalk is a straight line along the water, so there is no loop to complete and nothing to miss by cutting it short.