The Kiama Coast Walk - Minnamurra, Bombo & Kiama

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Route: Minnamurra, Minnamurra Lookout, Johnson Street, Jones Beach, Cathedral Rocks, Cliff Drive, The Boneyard, Bombo Headland, Bombo Quarry, Bombo Beach, Gipps St, Kiama Harbour, Kiama Lighthouse, Blowhole Point, Kiama

Date: 29/12/2024
From: Minnamurra

Parking: N/A
Start Point: Minnamurra
Finish Point: Kiama
Region: Shellharbour

Route length: 10.3 km
Time taken: 03:07
Average speed: 4.4 km/h
Ascent: 207m
Descent: 182m

Points of Interest: Minnamurra, Jones Beach, Cathedral Rocks, Bombo, Kiama

The Kiama Coast Walk is one of Australia’s most scenic coastal hikes, combining expansive ocean views with dramatic volcanic geology and a string of unspoilt beaches. The full walk is divided into three sections, stretching from the mouth of the Minnamurra River south through Kiama to Werri Beach at Gerringong. The terrain is generally gentle, making it accessible for most fitness levels, with a mix of sealed paths, grassy tracks, and beach walking.

This coastline has long been an important place for the Dharawal people, who lived along the Illawarra coast for thousands of years, relying on the rich marine environment for fish, shellfish, and other resources. Many of the headlands, rock platforms, and estuaries along the route would have been significant campsites and food-gathering areas.

We started in Minnamurra village, parking near the small train station platform - we'd need to use the train later in the day to get from Kiama back to Minnamurra. The name Minnamurra comes from the local Dharawal language and is commonly translated as “plenty of fish,” a fitting description once you reach the river mouth. The Minnamurra River estuary is a productive ecosystem where fresh and salt water mix, attracting fish, birds, and marine life.

Minnamurra River

Stack Island

From the river, the Coast Walk climbs onto Minnamurra Point, opening up sweeping views across the estuary toward Boyds Beach and the dramatic volcanic sea stack known as Stack Island. This formation is a remnant of ancient lava flows, part of the Illawarra’s basalt geology, which contrasts sharply with the sandstone landscapes more familiar around Sydney and the Blue Mountains. These basalt flows erupted around 20 million years ago, spreading across the region and later being sculpted by erosion into cliffs, columns, and isolated stacks like this one.

Minnamurra River

Stack Island

Minnamurra River

Minnamurra River and Killalea Regional Park

Minnamurra Point

Minnamurra River

Stack Island

Minnamurra

Looking south along the coast towards Bombo and Kiama

Minnamurra Point

The track heads south past a whale-watching platform — winter’s the best time to spot humpbacks as they migrate close to shore — then weaves briefly through suburbia before dropping down onto Jones Beach.

The whale-watching platform at Eureka Avenue

Heading towards the beach

Jones Beach

Jones Beach is a long, open stretch of sand backed by dunes and low cliffs, popular with surfers — especially around Kiama Downs, home to the local surf life-saving club. Long before European settlement, this coastline was a seasonal fishing ground, with rock platforms used to gather shellfish and fish traps set in the calmer waters.

Jones Beach

At the southern end of the beach rise the striking Cathedral Rocks, one of the most recognisable landmarks along the walk. You can reach them via a rock shelf, where these basalt sea stacks sit beneath the cliffs, their shapes evoking the walls and towers of a grand stone cathedral — which is how they got their name. Formed from columnar basalt, they were created as thick lava flows cooled and cracked into vertical columns. The spot is a magnet for photographers, and just around the first headland, a small sea cave waits to be explored.

Cathedral Rocks

Cathedral Rocks

Cathedral Rocks

From here, we followed North Kiama Drive as it rises gently over a low hill before descending along Cliff Drive toward The Boneyard. Even if Cathedral Rocks aren’t accessible from the beach, the road provides excellent elevated views back toward them, giving a better appreciation of their scale and setting beneath the cliffs.

Boneyard Beach

The Boneyard itself is a sheltered pebble beach, named not for anything macabre but after the powerful reef break known as Boneyards just offshore. The track briefly follows the shoreline before climbing into bushland on Bombo Headland, where the walk’s geology becomes even more dramatic.

Boneyard Beach

Boneyard Beach

Heading for Bombo Headland

Bombo Headland

Bombo Headland Quarry

Minnamurra Point and Stack Island

Unlike the naturally exposed basalt columns seen at places like the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, many of the formations at Bombo are the result of human activity. The headland was once a major blue metal quarry, supplying crushed basalt for roads, railway ballast, and construction throughout the Illawarra and Sydney from the late 1800s until the mid-20th century. Quarrying exposed vast walls of columnar basalt, leaving behind hundreds of tall, hexagonal columns that now form one of the most visually striking geological sites on the NSW coast. Today, the quarry is heritage-listed and protected.

Bombo Headland quarry

Bombo Headland quarry

Bombo Headland

Bombo Headland

The coastal path offers views over the quarry, with the option to detour down into it for a closer look at the towering walls and geometric columns. It’s a stark, almost otherworldly landscape.

Heading into the old quarry

Bombo Headland Quarry

Bombo Headland Quarry

Bombo Headland Quarry

Bombo Headland Quarry

Bombo Headland Quarry

Leaving the quarry behind, we made our way south to Bombo Beach — another long, golden stretch of sand with its own train station and little else, a reminder of how the railway opened up the south coast to tourism and industry in the late 19th century. 

Bombo Beach

Bombo Beach

Bombo Beach

At the southern end of the beach, we crossed Spring Creek, ducked under the railway line, and followed quiet local streets into Kiama.

Spring Creek

Kiama is a classic seaside town, shaped in its early European days by fishing, dairy farming, and quarrying. The Kiama Lighthouse, perched on Blowhole Point, was built in 1887 to guide ships safely along this rugged stretch of coast, just ten years after the construction of the man-made Kiama Harbour below. Today, both the lighthouse and harbour stand as reminders of the town’s maritime history and its connection to the sea.

Kiama Harbour

Kiama Harbour

Kiama Harbour

Beneath the lighthouse sits the famous Kiama Blowhole, a natural cavity in the basalt cliffs formed by wave erosion exploiting cracks and weaknesses in the rock. During strong swell, seawater is forced through the cavity and blasted high into the air, sometimes reaching more than 20 metres.

Kiama Lighthouse

Kiama Blowhole

Kiama Blowhole

Before long, we were heading north by rail back to Minnamurra to collect the car. This section of the Kiama Coast Walk packs an impressive mix of scenery, geology, and history into a surprisingly short distance. As the first third of a much longer coastal journey, it’s left me eager to return and explore the remaining sections further south.