Kaniaal Beach (WA 13) commences at the slight inflection in the shoreline and continues west-northwest for 12 km to Eyre, then another 5 km to Wonglabilla Well before curving round for 7 km to terminate against the beginning of the calcarenite shore adjacent to Rigbys shack, with a total length of 29 km. The old telegraph station and the Eyre Bird Observatory are located 1 km inland at 279 km. The beach has acted as the source of sand for the largest single dune system in Australia. The dunes trend east-northeast, sub-parallel to the coast, for a maximum distance of 105 km. They are 15 km wide at the coast gradually narrowing to the east. They have a total area of approximately of 1000 km2, and with an average height of approximately 10 m, the dunes have a volume of 10 km3 of quartz and calcareous sands. It is second only to Fraser Island in the size ranking of Australian dune systems. The beach system continues to be protected by the shallow nearshore zone, with wave attenuating across the calcarenite reefs and averaging about 0.5 m at the shore where they maintain a 50 m wide low tide bar, with seagrass offshore, and seagrass debris dominating the upper beach. read more

Beach Length: 0.029km