Melbourne's leafy residential suburb of Brighton includes shopping precincts, historic places of interest and the Brighton Beach Reserve. Residents' close recreational affinity with Port Phillip Bay is reflected in the development of the Reserve. For example Royal Brighton Yacht Club, Middle Brighton [saltwater] Baths, Brighton Life Saving Club, Brighton bathing boxes and 2nd/11th Sea Scouts.
The formal gardens and car park at Green Point, besides providing a photographic vantage point, complement the Brighton dune's native and other vegetation preserved by Bayside City Council and active conservationists.
Also within the Reserve is part of the Bayside Coastal Art Trail. The trail seeks to celebrate the lives and artwork of notable Australian artists by means of display boards. Frederick McCubbin's oil painting 'Summer Sea" 1895 was painted midway Dendy Street Beach.