Simpsons Bay Beach

Bruny Island
Simpson's Bay beach is the long thin beach on the western or Channel side of the Neck. The first thing you’ll notice about a beach like this, is there’s no wave movement.

It’s more like a pond. When you get waves, they’re wind generated waves across the surface. Its shallow water. So what will happen is, the wave will come in, run up the beach and erode at the base of the shore. Following that, there’s no beach building. Once the soil gets eroded it stays.

This is a highly productive beach. There’s very little movement of the sand. This sand over the top is mostly a wind-blown sand. As you go down, the sand will turn black, that colour is coming from the peat that is underlying a lot of this. It is much more noticeable on the northern side. Just look at the beautiful curve on the beach. It is wonderful to observe the birds here.

Black Swans
Black Swans on Simpsons Bay beach

Bob Graham
Bob Graham
Bob Graham is a professional geographer and convenor of the Bruny Island Environment Network


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