Manann Beach (FR1) faces due east and extends for 18 km from Sandy Cape to the coffeerock outcrop at North Ngkala Rocks. This beach, like all of Fraser Island, is composed of fine sand. It has a wide, low gradient swash zone fronted by a double bar system. The inner bar is usually attached to the beach and cut by rips every 200 m, with a deep trough paralleling the bar and a deeper outer bar 100 m off the beach, also cut by more widely spaced rips. Waves average 1 to 1.5 m and break over the two bars, maintaining the up to 90 strong rips right along the beach. A large sand sheet, extending up to 1 km inland, backs the northern 8 km of the beach, with otherwise largely vegetated parabolic dunes averaging 50 m and up to 100 m in height and extending up to 12 km across the island to the Hervey Bay shore.
This beach is little used by the tourist hoards to the south, owing to its considerable distance from the nearest vehicle landing, Moon Point 50 km to the south, as well as the difficulty in negotiating the Ngkala Rocks in a 4WD. It therefore offers some of the more remote, natural and little used environments on the island.
Beach Length: 18km
General Hazard Rating:
7/10
Patrols
There are currently no services provided by Surf Life Saving Australia for this beach. Please take the time to browse the Surf Safety section of this website to learn more about staying safe when swimming at Australian beaches.
Click here to visit general surf education information.
SLSA provides this information as a guide only. Surf conditions are variable and therefore this information should not be relied upon as a substitute for observation of local conditions and an understanding of your abilities in the surf. SLSA reminds you to always swim between the red and yellow flags and never swim at unpatrolled beaches. SLSA takes all care and responsibility for any translation but it cannot guarantee that all translations will be accurate.