Silver Beach (BB 22) is a 2.8 km long west-trending sand spit that is tied to the sandstone of Sutherland Point in the east and as it has extended to the west has partly enclosed the mangrove-lined shores of Quibray Bay. The spit and its backing low regressive sand barrier are now largely occupied by the quiet suburb of Kurnell, all backed by a large oil refinery. The eastern end of the beach is the site where Captain Cook first set foot on Australian soil in 1770. The sand spit that he would have seen extending east has since changed dramatically. Today a view along the beach is dominated by the groynes and houses. It is crossed by the 1 km jetty for the oil refinery, and 13 rock groynes, built in the 1970s, all backed by Prince Charles Parade and 2 km of beachfront houses. The 100-200 m wide western tip of the spit is a 1 km long beachfront reserve, fronted by four of the groynes with a boat ramp against the fourth groyne. The groynes, the road and houses continue to within 400 m of the eastern end of the beach (Fig. 4.258), the boundary with Botany Bay National Park. Toward the centre of the beach and opposite the small store/post office is a tidal pool formed by a net strung between two groynes. The rocks at the eastern end of Silver Beach mark the beginning of the large sandstone Kurnell Peninsula and its 8 km of rocky shore, most located in Botany Bay National Park. Extending along the back of the intertidal rocks, where Cook landed, is a 530 m strip of high tide sand (BB 23), that starts at the junction, continues past the Captain Cook Obelisk,past the Sutherland memorial (to one of Cook’s sailors who is buried at the site) to the Solander monument at Sutherland Point. There is one gap the rock, which permits clear access to the bay, but otherwise it is unsuitable for swimming. read more

Beach Length: 2km