Beaches in Western Australia

Twelve thousand kilometres of coast with under three million people behind it, and the scale is the whole difference: most beaches here have nobody on them, and the practical constraints are distance, fuel and water rather than crowds. The state divides into three coasts. The Kimberley in the far north is tidal on a scale that has few parallels — Broome has a ten-metre range, and the sea goes out far enough to change the map twice a day. The central coast holds Ningaloo, the rare place where a fringing reef meets the beach directly and can be snorkelled from the sand, with whale sharks passing between March and July, and Shark Bay further south, a World Heritage site of seagrass, dugong and the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. The south-west is cold, clear and exposed to the Southern Ocean, with white sand that squeaks underfoot at Esperance and Cape Le Grand and granite headlands between the bays. The north is tropical and stinger-affected through the wet season, when box jellyfish make swimming unwise; saltwater crocodiles are present north of about Broome. Practically: distances are the planning problem, fuel stops are far apart, mobile coverage is absent across long stretches, and a spare tyre and drinking water are not optional in the north. Cape Le Grand and Ningaloo both have campgrounds that book out well ahead in season.

Each is a different kind: four shores across four beach worlds. The sand is quartz sand throughout. Together they account for 29 km of shore. · computed from the 4 records below