The fascinating beaches of Bruny

Bruny Island
I think the real fascination with this place, Bruny, is, it’s an island. You have this incredibly varied coastal environment here.

There are more than a dozen beaches just in the small area around the Labillardiere Peninsula alone, both north-facing and south-facing. If you look at them, there is a beautiful symmetry in their shape. ‘Catenary curves’ are the name given to a beautiful geometrical curve, and that is how beaches are shaped. This clearly demonstrates that there is a physical process going on related to the amount of energy, the type of material and so on, it is not just a random process.

Also the nearby rocks will shape the beach and its colour. A darker beach exists near a dolerite foreshore, for example. You can see this at the darker coloured East Cove beach just near the Fluted cape walk.

Not all beaches are sandy – we’ve got to get that message across too – there’s rocky beaches too, pebble beaches too, huge variety.

The two beaches on either side of the neck are both extraordinary in their own way, and highly contrasting in their ecology. Chuckle head, Little Fancy Bay, and Great Bay are also incredible. If you walk along that section of coastline, you can find a beach where millions of tiny shells have been deposited, so it’s a shell beach, and that’s relatively unusual in Australia.

If you look at them, there is a beautiful symmetry in their shape.

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


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