White Cliffs refers to the scarped or cliffed white sand dunes on this section of the western side of the island. The beach (FR11) parallels the Great Sandy Strait and the cliffs are in fact scarped by movement in the deep tidal channel undermining the slopes, rather than waves. The beach is 7 km long and faces west-north-west across to the mainland at Bingham. Calm wave conditions dominate, with the tidal currents providing most of the energy. The beach consists of a narrow strip of high tide sand, fronted by 100 to 200 m wide sand flats and backed by steep cliffed sand dunes up to 60 m high. A few small creeks and valleys breech the cliffs, with the older settlement of Balarragan, a former quarantine station, occupying one, the newer Kingfisher Bay resort another, and Dundonga Creek valley forming the northern boundary. The beach has been used as a quarantine station, while it now has the large Kingfisher Bay resort residing on the backing slopes. read more

Beach Length: 7km