Eucla beach (WA 1) is a generally low energy sandy shoreline that commences below 100 m high Wilson Bluff and trends to the west-southwest for 41.5 km to a more prominent reef-induced sandy foreland. There is access to coast at the Eucla jetty immediately south of the Old Telegraph Station (Fig. 4.4) and at 15, 23 and 38 km to the west. The jetty was used to supply the station until 1929. The partial survival of the 150 m long timber jetty attested to the usually low wave energy along this section of the Bight (Fig. 4.5). There are no facilities or development along the continuous white sand, apart from a few backing fence lines, an old shed at the end of the 23 km track, and small boats, which are sometimes moored off the 15 km track. The highway is closest to the beach at Eucla. The gap then widens and is 10 km inland by the western end of the beach. The first few kilometers of the beach have a deeper nearshore and receive moderate waves averaging over 1 m which produce a low gradient 100 m wide surf zone and strong rips every few hundred metres. Towards Eucla jetty the nearshore shoals and waves decrease to about 0.5 m, with low wave conditions dominating the remainder of the beach. The lower energy section consists of a low gradient, fine white sand beach with a continuous 50 m wide low tide bar, fringed by seagrass meadows. Swash deposited piles of seagrass debris is a prominent feature of the upper swash zone the entire beach, and most of the beaches between Eucla and Twilight Cove. The beach is backed initially by the active Delisser dunes which have spread 2-3 km inland and in the east have climbed up the slopes of 90 m high Wilson Buff and then blown several hundred metres inland (Fig. 2.24f). These dunes, which extended further inland during the Pleistocene, were apparently reactivated by rabbits and sheep grazing during the latter part of the 19th century. West of 20 km the dunes become more stable and form a low foredune system, backed by discontinuous salt flats up to a few hundred metes wide, then older, low vegetated early Holocene dunes, which extend a further 3-4 km inland. read more

Beach Length: 0.041km