Qualla: Red Bluff

Red Bluff: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Travel & Shit from Brighton, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. Doing absolutely nothing is, the locals will tell you, more rewarding at Red Bluff than almost anywhere on Earth. That is a strange boast for a place that draws some of the most committed surfers in Australia, but both things are true at once. Set roughly midway between the Quobba and Gnarlaroo homesteads on the remote Gascoyne coast, Red Bluff is a steep red headland, a famous wave and a scatter of campsites, reached only by those willing to rattle in over unsealed track and fend for themselves once they arrive.

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Image: Travel & Shit from Brighton, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Red Bluff: The Wave

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Travel & Shit from Brighton, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. Red Bluff's reputation rests on a single, demanding left-hander that peels over reef when the swell lines up. It is not a beginner's wave. Surfers travel a long way for the privilege of taking it on, and the talk afterwards carries the particular awe reserved for waves that can h...

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Image: Travel & Shit from Brighton, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Red Bluff: A Surfer Saved by Surfers

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Travel & Shit from Brighton, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. The ocean here gives and takes without sentiment. In August 2012, a surfer named Jon Hines was attacked by a shark while riding at Red Bluff. He fought it off and survived, but only because the people around him acted fast, pulling him from the water and beginning the long, impro...

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Image: Travel & Shit from Brighton, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Red Bluff: Living Off the Grid

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gruyere, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is no public transport to Red Bluff and the distances are too long and too hot to cycle. To get here you branch west off Highway 1 north of Carnarvon, follow good tarmac to the coast at Point Quobba, then commit to the unsealed Gnarlaroo Road and the rough side tracks beyon...

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Image: Gruyere | CC BY-SA 3.0

Red Bluff: Whales, Goannas and a Sky Full of Stars

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Travel & Shit from Brighton, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. Between the surf sessions, the wildlife puts on its own show. Dolphins, turtles and reef sharks patrol close inshore, and from June to September humpback whales pass on their migration south. On land you might meet a wallaroo, which is its own distinct animal and not, despite the...

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Image: Travel & Shit from Brighton, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0