Whitehaven Beach is a 7 km stretch
along Whitsunday
Island, Australia.
The island is accessible by boat, seaplane & helicopter from Airlie Beach,
as well as Hamilton
Island. It lies across from Chalkie's Beach on Haslewood
Island.
Tourists
and locals visit Whitehaven Beach for a Whitehaven Beach BBQ lunch, to swim or
just take in the bright white sand, as well as campers who stay by booking the
National Parks camp facilities.
The
Whitehaven Beach Ocean Swim is a 2 km open swimming competition held on
the beach in November each year since 2009 as part of the Hamilton Island
Triathlon. The 2012 event was held on 11 November 2012.[1] The beach was also featured in
the racing video game Forza Horizon 3 in
the summer of July.
History
The
beach was named and discovered in 1879 by Staff Commander EP Bedwell. Being one
of the many names from the then English county of Cumberland Bedwell
brought to the area following James Cook's 1770 naming of
the island group The Cumberland Islands.
Geography
The
beach was awarded Queensland's Cleanest Beach in Keep Australia
Beautiful's 2008 Clean Beach Challenge State Awards. In July 2010,
Whitehaven Beach was named the top Eco
Friendly Beach in the world by CNN.com. Dogs are not
permitted on the beach and cigarette smoking is prohibited.
Whitehaven
Beach is known for its white sands. It has a beautiful scenery and the sand
consists of 98% pure silica which
gives it a bright white color. Local rocks do not contain silica so it has been
suggested that the sands were brought to the beach via prevailing sea currents
over millions of years.
Unlike
regular sand, the sand on Whitehaven Beach does not retain heat making it
comfortable to walk barefoot on a hot day. This sand is also very fine, and can
damage electronic equipment such as telephones and cameras, although it is good
at polishing up jewelers.