Wairo Beach (NSW 478) is a 5 km long, exposed beach backed by dunes reaching up to 30 m high and extending a few hundred metres inland. Many of the dunes were active until the 1980s and occasionally blew onto the Princes Highway which runs between the back of the 200-500 m wide dunes and Tabourie Lake. They have now been stabilised and are covered by grasses and shrubs. The beach begins in the north at 30 m high Lagoon Head and trends to the southwest, swinging round in the last 1 km to face the east, then northeast at a sandy salient called Tabourie Point in lee of Crampton Island. The beach can be accessed in the centre via fenced walkways over the dunes from a caravan park and from the highway, and in the south where a 1 km long park occupies the area between the beach and the narrow channel, connecting Tabourie Lake with the sea. The lake usually enters across the southern end of the beach, with the beach continuing on past the lake entrance, as a low spit to Crampton Island. A large caravan park is also located in lee of the northern lake entrance. The beach receives waves averaging 1.5 m which combine with the fine to medium sand to maintain a rip-dominated inner bar with an outer bar forming during high seas. Usually the single bar runs the length of the beach and is detached from the beach by a continuous trough, with rips cutting the bar every 300 m, producing up to 20 rips. South of the lake entrance, wave height decreases and the bar is usually attached to the beach with weaker rips. read more

Beach Length: 4.7km