April 20-23, 2025
A good break between Port Hedland and Broome is Eighty Mile Beach at 245km from PH and a further 375km to Cable Beach, our Broome destination. All that is here is the leased Caravan Park in the middle of Wallal Downs Station; it does have a small convenience store with essential grocery items but otherwise the closest shopping is back at Port Hedland and the closest fuel at Sandfire Roadhouse, 50km away and on our way Northwards.
Once called 90 mile beach it is in fact 140 miles (or 220km) of continuous beach forming the coastline where the Great Sandy Desert approaches the Indian Ocean; this makes it arguably the longest beach in the world, although the coastline shaping makes this practically impossible to determine for sure, with Praia do Cassino in Brazil possibly being longer. It is one of the most important sites for migratory shorebirds in Australia, and is recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Two walkways connect the caravan park to the beach over the sand dunes, and the beach, apart from driving, offers beach fishing and “a shell collectors paradise” – it only took us our first hour on the beach for Frances to amass this collection:
