👉 Book a Waterfalls Day Tour from Cairns on GetYourGuide →
🏜️ Ellery Creek Big Hole, Northern Territory
This one is a genuine shock to the system. Ellery Creek Big Hole sits in a permanent waterhole in the West MacDonnell Ranges, and even in the middle of a 40°C desert summer, the water stays cold enough to take your breath away on entry.
🏞️ Why it stays so cold
The waterhole is deep and shaded by high red rock walls for most of the day, meaning the sun barely reaches the water’s surface. It’s a genuinely striking contrast: baking desert heat on the walk in, then near-freezing water the second you’re submerged.
- Best time to visit: midday, when the desert heat outside the water makes the cold plunge feel earned rather than uncomfortable.
- What to bring: proper footwear for the rocky entry point, since the shoreline isn’t sandy.
🌿 Emerald Pool, Dorrigo National Park
Set within lush Gondwana rainforest in northern New South Wales, Emerald Pool lives up to its name, with clear, greenish water surrounded by dense ferns and towering trees. The walk in takes you through genuinely ancient rainforest, some of the oldest in the country.
It’s a good stop if you’re driving between Coffs Harbour and the New England tablelands, and much quieter than the more famous coastal swimming spots nearby, since it requires a short but genuine walk to reach.
🏝️ Champagne Pools, Fraser Island
Ocean swimming around Fraser Island (K’gari) is genuinely dangerous in most spots due to strong currents and, further offshore, sharks. The Champagne Pools solve this neatly: natural volcanic rock formations create safe, enclosed pools where ocean waves surge in and fizz around you, without any of the open-water risk.
It’s one of the only places on the island’s ocean-facing side where swimming is actually recommended, which makes it a near-mandatory stop on any Fraser Island 4WD trip.
🌊 A few more worth the detour
- Blue Lake, Kosciuszko National Park. A stunning alpine glacial lake, better suited to admiring than swimming given the seriously cold temperatures, but worth the hike regardless.
- Carnarvon Gorge waterholes, Queensland. Remote and rewarding, tucked deep within one of the state’s most spectacular gorge systems.
- Millstream Falls, Queensland. Reputed to be Australia’s widest single-drop waterfall, with a large, accessible plunge pool at its base.
- Wangi Falls, Litchfield National Park. A Northern Territory favourite, though it closes to swimmers seasonally when crocodile monitoring flags a risk.
👉 Book a Scenic Rim Waterfalls Tour on GetYourGuide →
⚠️ Safety basics that actually matter
🐊 The crocodile question
In tropical Queensland, the Northern Territory, and the Kimberley, some freshwater swimming holes can host crocodiles, and signage isn’t always perfectly up to date. Always check current local advice — from a visitor centre or park ranger, not just an old sign — before swimming in these regions, particularly after heavy rain when crocodiles can move into new areas.
🪨 Rock pool hazards
Rocks around waterfalls and swimming holes are frequently covered in algae and are far more slippery than they look. Most serious injuries at these locations come from slips on approach, not from the swimming itself. Wear grippy shoes on the walk in, not thongs.
🧭 Planning a swimming hole day trip
Pick swimming holes that fit naturally into a route you’re already driving rather than making a special trip for just one. Josephine Falls slots easily into a Cairns-to-Mission Beach drive, Ellery Creek fits a West MacDonnell Ranges day trip out of Alice Springs, and Emerald Pool works well alongside a Dorrigo National Park visit.
Get there early, especially on weekends and school holidays — the best of these spots have small car parks and an outsized reputation, and both of those things mean they fill up fast.
Best Australian Swimming Holes: 12 Secret Spots to Cool Off
Australian summers are no joke, and the beach isn’t always the answer — sometimes you’re hours from the coast, or the surf’s too rough, or you just want cool, still, freshwater instead of salt and sand in everything for a week.
That’s where swimming holes come in. Tucked into gorges, rainforest, and outback creek beds, they’re some of the best-kept secrets in Australian travel, and a handful of them are genuinely worth planning a whole day trip around.
Here’s the proper list, plus the safety details that actually matter before you jump in.
📋 TL;DR — the quick version
- 💦 Best overall: Josephine Falls in Queensland, with natural rock slides straight into a clear plunge pool.
- 🏜️ Best outback oasis: Ellery Creek Big Hole in the West MacDonnell Ranges, cold enough to shock you even in 40°C heat.
- 🌿 Best rainforest setting: Emerald Pool in New South Wales’ Dorrigo National Park.
- 🏝️ Best island swimming hole: Champagne Pools on Fraser Island, safe from surf and sharks.
- 🐊 Always check for crocodile warnings in tropical Queensland, the Northern Territory, and the Kimberley before swimming anywhere.
- ❄️ Outback and mountain swimming holes are colder than they look — ease in rather than diving straight from a hot rock.
- 🅿️ Arrive early — the best-known spots fill their small car parks by mid-morning on weekends.
💦 Josephine Falls, Queensland
Located within Wooroonooran National Park near Cairns, Josephine Falls has natural rock formations that work like a water slide, funnelling you gently down into a clear, deep plunge pool below. It’s an easy, family-friendly walk from the car park, which is exactly why it gets busy fast.
Note that the upper section of the falls is closed to swimmers due to a genuine history of fatalities from people underestimating the current, so stick to the signed, patrolled lower pool area rather than climbing higher for a better photo.
👉 Book a Waterfalls Day Tour from Cairns on GetYourGuide →
🏜️ Ellery Creek Big Hole, Northern Territory
This one is a genuine shock to the system. Ellery Creek Big Hole sits in a permanent waterhole in the West MacDonnell Ranges, and even in the middle of a 40°C desert summer, the water stays cold enough to take your breath away on entry.
🏞️ Why it stays so cold
The waterhole is deep and shaded by high red rock walls for most of the day, meaning the sun barely reaches the water’s surface. It’s a genuinely striking contrast: baking desert heat on the walk in, then near-freezing water the second you’re submerged.
- Best time to visit: midday, when the desert heat outside the water makes the cold plunge feel earned rather than uncomfortable.
- What to bring: proper footwear for the rocky entry point, since the shoreline isn’t sandy.
🌿 Emerald Pool, Dorrigo National Park
Set within lush Gondwana rainforest in northern New South Wales, Emerald Pool lives up to its name, with clear, greenish water surrounded by dense ferns and towering trees. The walk in takes you through genuinely ancient rainforest, some of the oldest in the country.
It’s a good stop if you’re driving between Coffs Harbour and the New England tablelands, and much quieter than the more famous coastal swimming spots nearby, since it requires a short but genuine walk to reach.
🏝️ Champagne Pools, Fraser Island
Ocean swimming around Fraser Island (K’gari) is genuinely dangerous in most spots due to strong currents and, further offshore, sharks. The Champagne Pools solve this neatly: natural volcanic rock formations create safe, enclosed pools where ocean waves surge in and fizz around you, without any of the open-water risk.
It’s one of the only places on the island’s ocean-facing side where swimming is actually recommended, which makes it a near-mandatory stop on any Fraser Island 4WD trip.
🌊 A few more worth the detour
- Blue Lake, Kosciuszko National Park. A stunning alpine glacial lake, better suited to admiring than swimming given the seriously cold temperatures, but worth the hike regardless.
- Carnarvon Gorge waterholes, Queensland. Remote and rewarding, tucked deep within one of the state’s most spectacular gorge systems.
- Millstream Falls, Queensland. Reputed to be Australia’s widest single-drop waterfall, with a large, accessible plunge pool at its base.
- Wangi Falls, Litchfield National Park. A Northern Territory favourite, though it closes to swimmers seasonally when crocodile monitoring flags a risk.
👉 Book a Scenic Rim Waterfalls Tour on GetYourGuide →
⚠️ Safety basics that actually matter
🐊 The crocodile question
In tropical Queensland, the Northern Territory, and the Kimberley, some freshwater swimming holes can host crocodiles, and signage isn’t always perfectly up to date. Always check current local advice — from a visitor centre or park ranger, not just an old sign — before swimming in these regions, particularly after heavy rain when crocodiles can move into new areas.
🪨 Rock pool hazards
Rocks around waterfalls and swimming holes are frequently covered in algae and are far more slippery than they look. Most serious injuries at these locations come from slips on approach, not from the swimming itself. Wear grippy shoes on the walk in, not thongs.
🧭 Planning a swimming hole day trip
Pick swimming holes that fit naturally into a route you’re already driving rather than making a special trip for just one. Josephine Falls slots easily into a Cairns-to-Mission Beach drive, Ellery Creek fits a West MacDonnell Ranges day trip out of Alice Springs, and Emerald Pool works well alongside a Dorrigo National Park visit.
Get there early, especially on weekends and school holidays — the best of these spots have small car parks and an outsized reputation, and both of those things mean they fill up fast.
🗺️ More swimming holes worth knowing about, state by state
Beyond the headline spots, nearly every Australian state has its own strong candidates worth building into a road trip route.
- Western Australia — Lucky Bay and Cape Le Grand: while technically ocean rather than freshwater, the sheltered bays around Esperance offer calm, clear swimming with none of the current risk of open surf beaches further north.
- South Australia — Morialta Falls: a short drive from Adelaide, with a series of waterfalls and rock pools set within a conservation park popular with locals on weekends.
- Tasmania — Liffey Falls: a cascading, forested waterfall system in the state’s north, with cool, tannin-stained water typical of Tasmania’s rainforest streams.
- Victoria — MacKenzie Falls: the Grampians’ largest waterfall, with a genuinely impressive plunge pool, though swimming is discouraged directly below the falls due to strong currents.
🍃 Reading water clarity and colour
Many of Australia’s best swimming holes, particularly in Tasmania and parts of the east coast rainforest belt, run a distinctive tea-brown colour from tannins leached out of surrounding vegetation. This is entirely natural and doesn’t indicate poor water quality — if anything, it’s often a sign of a healthy, undisturbed catchment. Genuinely murky, cloudy water after heavy rain, on the other hand, is a reasonable signal to wait a day or two before swimming, since runoff can temporarily affect both clarity and safety.
🚗 Making swimming holes part of a longer road trip
The best approach is treating these as scheduled breaks on a longer drive rather than dedicated day trips in their own right. A two or three-hour drive is a natural point to stop, cool off for 45 minutes, and get back on the road refreshed — far better than pushing through fatigue in a hot car because there’s “nowhere to stop.”
Keep a couple of these on a shortlist rather than picking just one, since access roads sometimes close after rain and a locked gate can quickly derail a single-destination plan. Having a backup swimming hole roughly along the same route means a closed car park is a minor inconvenience rather than a wasted afternoon.
Finally, always pack out what you bring in. Swimming holes are often unstaffed and rely entirely on visitors respecting the site, and a single litter-strewn weekend can be enough for local authorities to consider closing public access altogether.
Treat every one of these spots with the same care you’d want it to have when you come back next time, because plenty of them are exactly the kind of place worth returning to.
