Sorry, Australia; There's No Such Thing As 'The Maldives' In Your Own Backyard

We’re as guilty as anyone at comparing Australia’s nooks and crannies to proselytised overseas equivalents.

But as much as The Great Ocean Road does have some beaches that look remarkably like Polignano a Mare and as much as certain Port Stephens secrets look a bit like Crete, you have to draw the line somewhere.

That line for us? Bendalong Point is not the Maldives.

Despite the headlines popping off about it everywhere from TikTok to the tabloids (see: A taste of the Maldives in your own backyard: How you can swim with STINGRAYS in crystal clear water just three hours’ drive from an Aussie city) we’re here to say the Tasman is quite different from the Indian Ocean.

To be fair to those talking Bendalong up, it is beautiful (and a well-done Reel can make anywhere look good).

Also, in the case of the travel bloggers, none say it is the Maldives. They say it makes them feel like they are in the Maldives (or some just make the place look cool, without making any comparisons at all).

As @lolahubner put it: “The South Coast has got me feeling like I’m in the Maldives.” A sentiment we are more than sympathetic to, having recently ourselves compared South Australia to, of all places, Iceland…

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In any case, to assuage our guilty conscience (we too have even likened certain Australian locations to the Maldives this year), we’d like to clear a few things up.

First: the Maldives has an average water temperature of 28°C to 30°C per year. In Bendalong, the water temperature is between 17°C and 25°C (something traveller Jerome Webzanet discovered first hand).

Second: there are no lawn bowls clubs in the Maldives. Or caravan parks (as far as we can tell). Or kangaroos.

Third: last time we checked, there were no overwater villas on the NSW south coast.

The only thing that is (vaguely) similar is that both regions have good waves.

We’ll hang 10 to that.

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