Check it: Australia's 101 Best Beaches

101 Best Beaches

First Ever Authoritive List of Australia's Best Beaches..

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 25 October, 2012 : - - No one would dispute that Australia has some of the world's best beaches. With more than eleven thousand separate beaches, Aussies are truly spoiled for choice. But who would stick their neck out and dare to name the best beach in Australia?

Question: Which Australian beach is made entirely of shells, millions of them, several metres deep? Which beach has the biggest waves? Where is the World's largest sand island? Where do loggerhead turtles come to lay their eggs? And why does Australia have the best beaches on the planet?

This new book, '101 Best Beaches' answers all of those questions and more. Between them, authors Andy Short and Brad Farmer have visited every one of Australia’s 11,761 mainland beaches, making them uniquely qualified to tell us which are the ones we have to see before we die. This superbly illustrated and thoroughly researched book will make you want to start the journey right now.

Why Australia has the World's best beaches

The island-continent of Australia boasts the world’s best beaches – a big claim but one we feel confident is justified. And there are several reasons why.
First, there’s the nature of the coast. Although Australia does have a few very long beaches, the coastline is dominated by thousands of small bays, headlands, reefs and islets creating attractive seascapes along most parts of the coast.

A key factor in creating a great beach is sand – the size and nature of the sand grains helps determine colour, slope and width, as well as the nature of the surf zone and its rips and bars. Australian beaches have some of the best and cleanest sand in the world. About half of all our beaches have clean white to yellow quartz sand that ultimately comes from the ancient granite rocks of the interior. Added to this is carbonate detritus (the pulverised remains of shells and other marine life), which adds its own colours and texture. The continental shelf along our southern shores has the world’s largest temperate seagrass meadows and is the largest carbonate producer in the world, producing the abundance of detritus that has helped to build the most massive beaches and coastal dunes in the world.

Then there’s the water. We have a mostly arid climate so the continent has few rivers, a situation that has existed for the past 40 million years. The absence of rivers means there is not much fine silt and mud entering the ocean so we get clear water over those clean white-yellow sands.

Australia's oceans also deliver the waves that provide much of the drama, and recreational opportunities, at our beaches.

Our oceans also deliver the waves that provide much of the drama, and recreational opportunities, at our beaches. The great Southern Ocean provides regular surf to the southern coast year-round.

Added to this is the diversity of our plant and animal life and the fact that most of the beaches are in a natural state, many of them protected by national parks or other reserves. The net result is thousands of pristine undeveloped beaches with clear water, clean sand and surf, usually bordered by headlands and reefs and backed by vegetated coastal dunes, in climates that range from tropical to temperate.

The efforts from the people of Australia, and the World in protecting our environments
The Australian love affair with the beach has led huge numbers of us, including the authors of this book, to become campaigners for the preservation of our coast. Many of the beaches in this book would not have retained their natural magic without vigilant community engagement to ensure sensitive coastal planning and conservation. If you love the beach, we urge you to get involved in coastal and marine protection to make sure future generations can continue to enjoy the world’s best beaches.

If you love the beach, we urge you to get involved in coastal and marine protection to make sure future generations can continue to enjoy the world’s best beaches.

www.101bestbeaches.com

Source: 101 Best Beaches

Author: The Editors

Tags: Brad Farmer, Andy Short,

Books: Surfersvillage