Greenhills Beach, Coastal beach in southern Sydney, Australia

Greenhills Beach is a sandy coastal area in southern Sydney that extends along Bate Bay with calm water conditions. A reef offshore helps reduce larger waves, creating relatively sheltered swimming conditions.

The name Greenhills comes from the Cronulla sand dunes: before European settlement the dunes were thickly vegetated, but within a century of settlement most of that cover had been cleared, exposing the sand. Sand was then mined in the area for years, and surviving patches of tall grass and shrubs still give the hills a green tint.

The name comes from the green tint that tall grass and shrubs still give the Cronulla sand dunes, exposed after a century of clearing and sand mining. The beach is one of the few in Sydney where dogs may run off-leash, allowed between 4pm and 10am.

Dogs may run off-leash between 4pm and 10am; a 2013 council decision to allow them around the clock was repealed after three weeks following two serious attacks. No surf lifesavers or volunteer club patrol the sand, so swimmers enter the water at their own risk. The beach runs about 3 km along Bate Bay, roughly 18 km from the Sydney CBD.

Merries Reef, off the rocks near Boat Harbour at the beach's northern end, has been part of the Boat Harbour Aquatic Reserve since 2001. It shelters southern rock lobsters and blacklip abalone, draws spearfishers and marine collectors, and breaks the waves that keep surf low here.