Between the southern rocky shore of Cape Upstart and the Elliott River mouth is a 12 km long beach, that is cut toward its northern end by a tidal creek, draining a swampy area behind the beach. This beach is, in fact, the major link that ties the cape to the mainland, as it is backed by the swamp, then an older Pleistocene (120 000 year old) barrier and then the extensive salt flats and mangrove-fringed shore of Upstart Bay. The Cape homestead lies on higher ground 2 km in from the northern end of the beach, and there is a vehicle track from the homestead to the main beach as well as Coconut Bay. There is, however, no development on the beaches. The Cape Beach (929) lies on the southern side of the shallow creek mouth. After the tidal shoals, it extends for 11.6 km south, then south-east, to the 500 m wide mouth of the Elliott River. The beach is backed by up to 1 km of low, vegetated dunes, with some areas of wind-blown sand, then a long swamp paralleling the back of the dunes, then the older 300 to 400 m wide Pleistocene barrier. The beach receives waves averaging over 0.5 m high in the north, but these decrease to less than 0.5 m by the Elliott River. For the first 5 km, they produce low tide rips spaced about every 100 m, backed by a 200 m wide, low intertidal beach and then the low dunes covered with casuarina and spinifex. read more

Beach Length: 11.5km