Ocean Beach

Ocean Beach

Ocean Beach ~ Strahan ~ West Coast, Tasmania ~ Australia

Stretching for over 30 km, Ocean Beach is the longest beach in Tasmania. In late September, the first of thousands of shearwaters (muttonbirds) reach their breeding rookery here, after their 15,000 km migratory flight from the Arctic region. During the summer months, they provide an amazing wildlife spectacle each night at dusk as they return from their feeding forays over the ocean.

To the west, the ocean extends for 20,000 km before it reaches land, allowing the ‘roaring forties’ to whip up the huge waves that have made Hells Gates at the mouth of Strahan's harbour the site of many shipwrecks and drownings. Sadly, tragedies of another kind — mass pilot whale strandings — have also occurred along Ocean Beach as recently as earlier this month.

The impressive windswept sand dunes and usually roaring surf at Ocean Beach certainly make for a spectacular stretch of coastline.