Culburra Beach
title: "Culburra Beach" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["towns-in-new-south-wales", "towns-in-the-south-coast-(new-south-wales)", "city-of-shoalhaven", "coastal-towns-in-new-south-wales"] topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culburra_Beach" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::data[format=table title="Infobox Australian place"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| type | town |
| name | Culburra Beach |
| state | nsw |
| image | Warrain Beach.jpg |
| caption | Northern end of Warrain Beach, the main surfing beach |
| coordinates | |
| pushpin_label_position | left |
| lga | City of Shoalhaven |
| county | St Vincent |
| parish | Numbaa |
| region | South Coast |
| postcode | 2540 |
| est | 1887 |
| local_map | |
| pop_year | |
| pop_footnotes | |
| elevation | 12 |
| stategov | South Coast |
| fedgov | Gilmore |
| location1 | Nowra |
| dir1 | ESE |
| dist1 | 18 |
| location2 | Sydney |
| dir2 | S |
| dist2 | 171 |
| near-n | Comerong Island |
| near-ne | Tasman Sea |
| near-e | Tasman Sea |
| near-se | Tasman Sea |
| near-s | Lake Wollumboola |
| near-sw | Wollumboola |
| near-w | Pyree |
| near-nw | Orient Point |
| :: |
| type = town | name = Culburra Beach | state = nsw | image = Warrain Beach.jpg | caption = Northern end of Warrain Beach, the main surfing beach | coordinates = | pushpin_label_position = left | lga = City of Shoalhaven | county = St Vincent | parish = Numbaa | region = South Coast | postcode = 2540 | est = 1887 |local_map=|local_map_id=Q5192876| pop = 2946 | pop_year = | pop_footnotes = | elevation = 12 | stategov = South Coast | fedgov = Gilmore | location1 = Nowra | dir1 = ESE | dist1 = 18 | location2 = Sydney | dir2 = S | dist2 = 171 | near-n = Comerong Island | near-ne = Tasman Sea | near-e = Tasman Sea | near-se = Tasman Sea | near-s = Lake Wollumboola | near-sw = Wollumboola | near-w = Pyree | near-nw = Orient Point Culburra Beach, commonly referred to as Culburra, is a town located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Located within the Shoalhaven local government area, the town is 18 km east-southeast of Nowra on Jerrinja Wandi Wandian Aboriginal Country. At the , the town had a population of 2,946 and is the regional centre for the coastal villages of Currarong, Callala Beach, Callala Bay and Orient Point.
Description
Culburra Beach is a small seaside town and a popular holiday, fishing and surfing location. Local industries include oysters, fishing, and prawning. It has two surf beaches, Culburra Beach and Warrain Beach. The town is flanked by the Crookhaven River to the north, Curleys Bay to the west, and Lake Wollumboola to the south. It is home to the Culburra Beach Boardriders, Culburra Dolphins Rugby League team and the Culburra Cougars soccer team and the Culburra Beach Festival know to many as the Burradise Festival which happens annually in September celebrating local creative arts, Jerrinja Aboriginal culture, original live music, the annual Surf Bash tournament, skateboarding, regional foods, markets, crafts and makers.
The town also boasts the two closest surf beaches to Nowra and is home to the Culburra Beach and Nowra Surf Lifesaving Club whose clubhouse is located at the northern end of Warrain Beach. The beaches are patrolled during the summer holiday period, and being located on either side of Penguin Head face in different directions, providing a variety of surf conditions for board riders, swimmers, body surfers and families with young children. A wide variety of fish species are caught on these beaches and from the rocky headlands adjacent to them.
It is the location of Crookhaven Heads Light.
Notable people
- Owen Wright – Surfer
- Tyler Wright – Surfer
History
Originally called Wheelers Point after the first landholder George Wheeler; the name was changed to Culburra in 1916 after an Aboriginal word meaning "sand"; and later to Culburra Beach. Postal services were first provided from Warrain Beach Post Office, which was renamed Culburra Beach in 1970.
The area's first school was the Roseby Park Aboriginal School, which opened in 1903. It became a public school in 1906 and remained that way until it closed in 1964. Culburra children had to attend Pyree Public School until its closure in August 1976, and the following month saw the opening of Culburra Public School.
The modern street plan of Culburra Beach has been popularly attributed to Walter Burley Griffin, who also designed the street plan for Canberra, but was in fact the work of developer Henry Halloran, as landowner, designer, and surveyor. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Sunbaker_maxdupain_nga76.54.jpg" caption="Max Dupain's]] "[[Sunbaker]]" photo. Taken in Culburra Beach"] ::
Culburra Beach is the location of the famous Max Dupain photo Sunbaker. Dupain took the photograph in 1937. The man in the photograph was Harold Salvage (1905–1991), a British builder, who was part of a group of friends on a surfing trip. The most familiar version of the photograph was not printed until a retrospective of Dupain's work in 1975.
Population
According to the 2021 census of Population, there were 2,946 people in Culburra Beach.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 6.4% of the population.
- 84.7% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 3.3%.
- 93.1% of people spoke only English at home.
- The most common responses for religion were No Religion 40.8%, Anglican 20.9% and Catholic 20.8%.
References
References
- {{census 2021 AUS
- "Culburra Beach".
- "Culburra Beach". OpenStreetMap.
- "2021 Culburra Beach, Census All persons QuickStats {{!}} Australian Bureau of Statistics".
- "Culburra Beach, NSW".
- (2015-11-24). "On this day, 24th November, 1876, Walter Burley Griffin, the...". [[State Library of New South Wales]].
- Myers, Paul. (2 May 2009). "Simple pleasures". The Age.
- "History". Culburra Beach Progress Association Inc..
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::