The city of Mackay is located on the southern side of the Pioneer River mouth. Most of the city is located on river mouth floodplains of the Pioneer. Toward the coast the floodplain is, and in places was, fronted by a few hundred metres of mangroves, then a series of low beaches and dunes that form a 7 km section of east facing shore from the river mouth south to Bakers Creek mouth. Since the 1960's a great deal of the mangrove areas have been infilled for residential development and Town and Far beaches developed for residential, recreational and tourist facilities. Far Beach (1121) extends south of Town Beach for 2.9 km. It is the site of a large caravan park and other tourist accommodation and recreational facilities. It is also backed by a seawall in places and consists of a narrow high tide beach fronted by 2 to 3 km of tidal flats. South of the seawall a low grass and casuarina-covered foredune backs the beach. The beach ends at a small creek mouth. Extending for another 900 m on the south side of the creek is the southern extension of Far Beach (1122). At present it is undeveloped, although there is 4WD access to the southern tip that recurves round as a spit into Bakers Creek mouth. This beach is also fronted by 2 to 3 km of tidal flats (Fig. 4.64). read more

Beach Length: 2.9km