Courts and sessions
Where to play pickleball in Byron Bay
Almost all pickleball in Byron happens at one complex on the edge of town — and it is a good one, with fifteen courts across indoor timber and outdoor hard surfaces. What you need to know is less about finding a court and more about getting into the right session.
Cavanbah Centre, Ewingsdale Road
Byron Shire's sports and cultural complex, on Ewingsdale Road at the western edge of town — away from the beach traffic, with parking that actually exists in January. Between the indoor stadium and the outdoor courts there are fifteen pickleball courts here: six indoor on timber and nine outdoors on hard surface, with permanent lines on both and lights for evening play. Toilets, water and plenty of room to sit between games.
Indoor and outdoor each have their moment. The outdoor courts are the better experience on a dry winter morning, which on this coast is most of them. Indoors is where sessions move when a summer storm arrives, and where the soft game gets more technical because nothing is being blown off line.
Byron Bay Pickleball Club
The club that runs play at Cavanbah, and the reason the town's pickleball works as well as it does. Sessions are varied rather than one undifferentiated social hit: beginners' sessions, general social play, skills and drills, match play, graded competitive sessions and an advanced evening session, plus local competitions and tournaments through the year.
Sessions are listed and booked ahead through the club's scheduling platform rather than by turning up at the gate, and each listing states whether it is on the indoor or outdoor courts. This is the single most important practical thing to know as a visitor: check the schedule before you arrive in town, not on the morning you want to play.
Northern Rivers Pickleball
The region's original club, started at Ballina in 2020, incorporated and affiliated with Pickleball NSW in 2022, and now one of the largest clubs outside metropolitan Sydney with several hundred members. It runs sessions across the Northern Rivers — including Ballina and Goonellabah as well as Byron Bay — along with graded play for members, junior coaching and the region's annual tournament.
Worth knowing about even if you only intend to play in Byron. If you are here for a fortnight, or based in Lennox or Ballina and driving up, membership of the regional club opens up considerably more court time than the Byron sessions alone.
Around the Northern Rivers
Within an hour of Byron there is play at Ballina, Goonellabah near Lismore, and a spreading list of tennis clubs adding courts as demand grows. South of Ballina the coast runs down through Evans Head towards the Clarence; north, the Tweed and the Gold Coast have their own scenes entirely.
Before travelling to any of them, check a directory rather than a map search — a lot of regional pickleball happens at tennis clubs and community halls that never surface in one. The NSW club directory lists a couple of hundred venues with surface and session detail, and Pickleball NSW keeps the affiliated-club list.
If you are visiting
- Book before you arrive. Sessions are scheduled and capped. This is the difference between playing four times in a week and not at all.
- Nominate your level honestly. Graded sessions only work if people self-report accurately, and a visitor who overstates it is remembered.
- Take the early sessions in summer. Humidity here is the limiting factor from December to March, not temperature.
- The courts are on the Ewingsdale side. Getting to them does not involve the beach-end traffic, which is a genuine advantage in peak weeks.
- Details change. Everything here was accurate when written; check the club's schedule before you drive. If something is out of date, tell us.