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Dendy Beach Pavilion

The new Brighton Life Saving Club will help to improve safety for thousands of annual visitors to Dendy and Brighton beaches and provide vital facilities for lifesavers to respond to emergencies. 

The redeveloped facility integrates environmentally sustainable building features including energy-efficient glazing, and water-saving fittings in line with best practice design.

Council invested $10.6 million in the building, which was also supported by Victorian Government and Life Saving Victoria ($1 million) and the Brighton Life Saving Club ($500,000).

 

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Brighton Life Saving Club

The new club facilities include a life saver's observation area, multi-purpose training space, equipment storage, change facilities and public toilets. The facility also has a small kitchen, training/function area and meeting space. For more information about the Brighton Life Saving Club, including their club activities, events, patrols, nippers program and new members enquiries information, visit the Brighton Life Saving Club website.

Beach House Brighton café

Beach House Brighton customers can enjoy city views and afternoon sunsets from their 18-seat open deck and 32 indoor seats behind the floor to ceiling windows. The intimate dining space uses soft earthy tones and curved stone to create a calm, beachy atmosphere inspired by the surrounding coastline.

The café is serving breakfast and lunch ranging from French toast to fish tacos, and the takeaway window is serving beach favourites and more.

The café is open 7 days a week between 7am to 4pm, with extended closing hours in the warmer months.

For more information visit Beach House Brighton.

Car parking

The onsite car park is for cars and service vehicles (not minibuses or larger buses). Cars will enter the new one-way car park via the northern driveway (Wellington Street end) and exit via the southern driveway (the Dendy Street end).

A 4-hour maximum parking restriction applies to the onsite car park, which includes:

  • 2 accessible parking soaces with direct path access to the café and the upper level of the life saving club.
    • These spaces are exempt from paid tickets.
    • The 4-hour maximum parking restriction applies.
  • 53 car parking spaces.
    • Paid parking for up to 4-hour hours between 8am and 8pm
    • Bayside residents with a municipal parking sticker are exempt from the parking fee, however the 4-hour time limit still applies.

Two ticket machines are located centrally in the car park. Bike hoops are also located on the path near the main entrance to the café and life saving club.

View the Dendy Beach Pavilion precinct map.

Accessibility

The car park has 2 accessible parking spaces with direct path access to the café and the upper level the life saving club. The 4-hour maximum parking restriction applies.

A new shared pedestrian beach access ramp provides all ability access to the promenade level. The pavilion also has a public lift between the carpark (street) level and the lower forecourt /beach promenade area. The lift is open for use during daylight hours only.

Bus parking

Designated bus parking is located on the beach-side of The Esplanade (Brighton), opposite property numbers 160–168 (approx. 250m from the main Pavilion car park).

Buses need to adhere with the no stopping/ clearway times, currently between:

  • 7am-9am Monday to Friday
  • 6am-10am Saturday and Sunday

We are trialling this (temporary) bus zone for approximately 12 months. Traffic data and feedback from residents, tour operators, and visitors will help to inform a permanent bus parking plan for the precinct.

View The Esplanade bus parking area map.

Additional bus parking 

Alternate bus parking is located at Green Point car park. It is approximately 850m from the main Pavilion car park and can be used to drop-off passengers.

View the Green Point car park map.

Stormwater drainage upgrade

We upgraded the stormwater drainage at the Dendy Beach Pavilion. The gross pollutant trap will remove over 90% of stormwater contaminants before the water moves into a 500m2 filtration system and raingarden adjacent to the promenade This system unit will slow the release of water and reduce outflow of stormwater into the Bay.

Bay Trail upgrade

We realigned the Bay Trail adjacent to the new car park and planted a landscape buffer between the trail and The Esplande to help improve pedestrian safety.

Promenade and forecourt

We renewed the beach promenade (sand-level path) adjacent to the life saving club. The paved, level promenade connects with the Bay Trail at the Middle Brighton Baths.

The new building is further back from the beach than the original pavilion, increasing the lower forecourt area. The forecourt serves as the junction between the foreshore promenade, the main entry stairs, and the new shared pedestrian beach access ramp (vehicle/ boat access for Brighton LSC and emergency vehicles only).

Tiered seating provides significantly increased seating with vistas over the bathing boxes and bay views through to the CBD.

Project history

The new Dendy Beach Pavilion is the centrepiece of a $13 million upgrade improving the visitor experience of this iconic precinct. The redevelopment includes:

  • A new pavilion including public toilets, facilities for Brighton Life-Saving Club including a life-savers’ beach observation area and multi-purpose training space and a small cafe with level access from the car park
  • Addressing unsightly storm water outfall
  • Improve the car park, shared trail and beach access pathways.
  • New lower and upper forecourt.

The design of the pavilion building includes timber cladding to the upper storey which reflects the natural and beachy theme which was the preferred look identified through community consultation. This is to be situated further back from the beach than the existing pavilion increasing the lower forecourt plaza area.

We've upgrading the facility because the original structure, while serving the community well over time, was in poor condition and didn’t meet the needs of the Brighton Life-Saving Club's 650+ members and volunteers who provide important lifesaving service to the local community and visitors to the iconic beach.

The project was identified by Life Saving Victoria as one of the highest priority facilities for replacement, and we worked with the club and the broader community to ensure that the new building met future needs of the community and with minimal impact on the local environment.

  1. Document 1
  2. Document 2
  3. Document 3
  4. Document 4
September 2024

Dendy Beach Pavilion opens.

June 2023

Construction on the Dendy Beach Pavilion has restarted with Council contracting FOURSQ to complete the project.

March 2023

On Friday 31 March 2023, Council was notified that the project contractor had placed themselves into voluntary administration. Council is undertaking a tender process, and construction will resume after we contract new project builders.

December 2022

Council resolves to execute a 15 year lease for the Dendy Beach Pavilion cafe at its December meeting.

November 2021

Works commence on the Dendy Beach Pavilion.

October 2021

The Court of Appeals has given the green light for the Dendy Street Beach Masterplan and pavilion.

We are continuing to work with the EPA to meet the requirements of Clean Up Notices for the precinct from Green Point to Middle Brighton Baths.

The EPA issued two clean up notices– one for the pavilion redevelopment site, the other for a broader section of the foreshore.

The EPA Clean Up Notices follow the discovery of contaminated soil during site assessments for the pavilion project.

Council is working with the EPA to manage contamination during the construction of the pavilion and associated works.

The Clean Up Notice for the broader foreshore and beach area requires Council to conduct further assessments to determine what, if any, action is required and provide a report to the EPA.

Organised activities that may involve disturbing soil in the broader Dendy Beach foreshore area are currently restricted as a precautionary measure.

Council is working to respond to the impact of coastal erosion at Dendy Beach.

The south end of the foreshore is particularly vulnerable to southerly winds and storm surge events and northward sand movement over the summer. Over the winter months, southward sand movement is expected.

The volume of sand lost during these storm surge events has greatly exceeded the amount returned to the beach causing noticeable erosion impacting the bathing boxes, vegetation, and dunes at Dendy Beach.

We have been working with coastal engineers and key stakeholders to explore solutions to protect the iconic bathing boxes, important remanent Indigenous vegetation, precious dune system and cultural sites from any further damage.

As a temporary solution we recently undertook emergency sandbagging works to stabilise the bathing boxes at the south end of the beach. Following this in May 2022, we completed a sand renourishment at Dendy Beach.

This involved moving large quantities of sand from the Park Street Groyne to the south end of the beach. These works have increased the beach width and provided a buffer from further storm damage impacting the bathing boxes, important remanent Indigenous vegetation, precious dune system and cultural sites at Dendy Beach.

The next stage is investigating a long-term solution, with implementation anticipated to be in 2025 – 2027.