Fortescue Bay is a remote 4 km deep bedrock embayment located to the lee of 134 m high Cape Hauy. The bay has a 1 km wide entrance widening into the northern small Canoe Bay, a popular anchorage, and the larger main Fortescue Bay. Beach T 309 is located at the southwestern base of the main bay. The entire bay shore is surrounded by steep, densely wooded slopes rising 100-200 m and all are part of the Fortescue Forest Reserve (Fig. 4.56). The 12 km long Fortescue Road winds in from the highway to the southern end of the beach, where there are camping and boat launching facilities.
The beach is 700 m long and faces northeast towards the bay entrance. Lower refracted waves reach the shore averaging about 0.5 m, where they maintain a lower gradient reflective to low tide terrace beach. The beach and low backing foredune form a barrier across the mouth of Agnes Creek, which is impounded behind the centre of the beach as the small Fortescue Lagoon. The lagoon occasionally breaks out across the beach, causing a slight protrusion in the centre of the beach, with some rocks deposited on the seafloor off the mouth.
Beach Length: 0.7km
General Hazard Rating:
3/10
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.
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.