Dingo Beach and its neighbour Hydeaway Bay sit on Edgecumbe Bay, on the western side of Cape Gloucester about 50 km north-west of Airlie Beach. The ramp runs straight off the beach and gives access to Gloucester Island, the Gloucester Passage and the northern Whitsundays, big-game and reef fishing country that sees far less traffic than the islands off Airlie.

The catch is the tide. Transport and Main Roads' 2018 investigation found the toe of the ramp sits a metre above lowest astronomical tide and deep water is 380 m out across coral and sand flats, so a true all-tide ramp here would have needed a long causeway or dredged channel that the $1.4 million budget could not cover. What was built instead, completed in December 2019 for $651,000, was a rebuilt and widened ramp with a short extension, a modest gain at low water. Plan on launching and retrieving from mid tide up, and use the sandy beach beside the ramp as the queuing area. The site is open to the north-easterlies.

Parking is informal, under the foreshore trees. Toilets are on the foreshore. There are no shops of any size; fuel up before you leave the highway. Marine Rescue Queensland Whitsunday covers these waters on VHF 16 and 67, and mobile coverage is patchy once you are off the beach.

Further reading