The first beach in South Australia is part of the large Discovery Bay beach system, which extends from Cape Bridgewater in Victoria for 43 km to the border then another 8 km through to Green Point in South Australia. It has a total length of 51 km, making it one of Australia’s longer beaches. The Glenelg River mouth is located 2 km east of the border. The South Australian section of the beach, Piccaninnie Ponds beach (1), therefore extends from the border for 8.2 k to the low sandy Green Point. The beach is readily accessible via the Piccaninnie Ponds Road, with basic camping facilities at the Ponds, which are located 500 m behind the beach, with a small car park at the beach. The freshwater ponds, which are up to 85 m deep, are part of the Piccaninnie Ponds Conservation Park, and their overflow drains across the beach 200 m west of the car park. The beaches faces south with some longshore crenulations in response to offshore reefs, with Green Point protruding up to 1 km in lee of the most substantial reefs. It is composed of fine white sand and receives waves averaging 1.5 to 2 m in the east decreasing to the west in lee of the reefs off Green Point. The high waves and fine sand maintain a 200 m wide surf zone containing an inner bar cut by several widely spaced rips, a longshore trough a wider rip dominated outer bar. read more

Beach Length: 8.2km