Weather Forecast
18.60°C
Current Temperature
13.00km/h
Wind speed
15.31°C
Water Temperature
3.32m
Swell
0.22m
Tide
8/11
UV
On the western side of the Point are the world famous Cactus (1326) and Castles (1327) beaches, and their surrounding surfing breaks (Fig. 4.186). The Penong Road runs along the back of Cactus Beach, with a large camping area set amongst the dune scrub, between the road and beach, and good vehicle and foot access to the back of the beach. There is a small camp store, which provides the only commercial activity in the area. The beaches are 250 and 400 m long respectively. They face west and are backed by a low foredune, bordered by calcarenite bluffs and fronted by exposed beachrock and shallow calcarenite reefs. In lee of the reefs is a narrow high tide sand beach, and while waves can be large on the outer reefs, they are usually less than 0.5 m when they finally reach the beach. However both beaches are drained by strong permanent rips, particularly off Castles. In addition to the Cactus left and Castles right surf breaks off the beaches, to the south of Cactus out on Point Sinclair is Witzigs, Backdoors and Cunns, while off the north Castles bluff is Caves, Crushers and Supertubes. All the breaks are over calcarenite reefs and receive slight protection and cleaner waves owing to refraction around the point and over outer deeper reefs.
Beach Length: 0.25km
General Hazard Rating: 5/10

Patrolled Beach Flag Patrols

There are currently no services provided by Surf Life Saving Australia for this beach. Please take the time to browse the Surf Safety section of this website to learn more about staying safe when swimming at Australian beaches. Click here to visit general surf education information.

Information

Formal parking area
Formal parking area
Camping
Caravan park
Drinking water
Other facilities
Toilets Block M/F

Regulations

Hazards

Topographic rips

Weather

SLSA provides this information as a guide only. Surf conditions are variable and therefore this information should not be relied upon as a substitute for observation of local conditions and an understanding of your abilities in the surf. SLSA reminds you to always swim between the red and yellow flags and never swim at unpatrolled beaches. SLSA takes all care and responsibility for any translation but it cannot guarantee that all translations will be accurate.