Beaches in Queensland

The Australian tropics, with the Great Barrier Reef offshore for two thousand kilometres. The reef keeps the swell down and the water clear, and it also means marine stingers between roughly November and May. The Whitsundays hold the finest silica sand in the country; K'gari, further south, is a sand island with beaches used as roads. Two seasonal facts govern the coast. Marine stingers — box jellyfish and Irukandji — make northern beaches unsafe without a full-body suit from roughly November to May, and operators supply them as a matter of routine. Saltwater crocodiles inhabit rivers and estuaries north of Gladstone year-round. The Great Barrier Reef offshore keeps the inner waters calm, and the islands within it are reached by ferry or seaplane from Airlie Beach and Cairns. Practicalities: stinger suits are supplied by operators as a matter of routine in the warmer months, patrolled beaches carry flags, and the reef islands are reached by ferry or seaplane on schedules that weather can cancel. The wet season runs roughly December to March.

Each is a different kind: three shores across three beach worlds. Together they account for 133 km of shore. · computed from the 3 records below