The Scamander River flows though a meandering lagoon to the 500 m wide river mouth. While the river is usually blocked during floods and high flow the beach to either side can be washed away with strong tidal flows through the mouth. The river mouth shoals also produce some good surf breaks. Steels Beach (T 115) commences at the river mouth and trends due south for 4.9 km curving slightly to the southeast in lee of the boundary Henderson Point at Falmouth. The Scamander surf life saving club patrols the area south of the river mouth. The beach receives waves averaging up to 1.5 m which maintain a well developed rip-dominated 100 m wide surf zone, with up to 20 rips forming along the beach, and at times linking to form a continuous longshore trough. When Henderson Inlet is open strong tidal currents and a rip flow along the point. The beach is backed by a 50-100 m wide hummocky vegetated foredune, then a continuous 200 m wide wetland, which links with the lagoon in the south, the lagoon deflected 2.5 km south to the inlet. The only access is in the north from the southern section of Scamander, with a 200 m long walk across the wetland and dune to the northern tip of the beach. When the lagoon mouth is blocked the southern end of the beach can be accessed from Falmouth. read more

Beach Length: 4.9km