The open, north facing bay between Cape Keppel and Cape Capricorn contains a relatively protected though highly dynamic shoreline, consisting of a series of sandy spits and low beaches, backed by a combination of beach ridges and two tidal creeks. The creeks produce tidal currents and shoals that, together with sand feed around Cape Capricorn, maintain the highly dynamic nature of the bay. During the past 6000 years, a tremendous volume of sediment has been delivered around the cape into this bay, resulting in the shoreline prograding bayward by up to 4 km, leaving behind multiple series of beach ridges and recurved spits in amongst the high tide salt flats. Beach 1399 is the first of the barrier island-spits. The 2 km long beach lies between the first two tidal inlets east of the cape. The first inlet in particular is very dynamic and the 500 m wide channel, tidal shoals and adjacent spits and beach vary considerably in shape and length from year to year. The southern inlet is smaller but still dynamic. The result is a low beach that is at times building out and at other times eroding back into the mangroves, exposing mangrove stumps and mud on the shore. read more

Beach Length: 2km