EIGHTY MILE BEACH

coastal edge of the arid, sedimentary Great Sandy Desert and the Canning Basin (qq.v.), northwestern Western Australia, bordering the Indian Ocean. Extending in a curve northeast from Cape Keraudren (east of the De Grey River mouth) to Cape Bossut, it is about 85 miles (140 km) long. The beach, generally low and sandy but with an expanse of dunes in the area around Anna Plains, experiences a tidal range as great as 28 feet (9 m). It is bordered with salt and samphire (plant) marshes with a dreary waste region extending inland. Formerly called Ninety Mile Beach, it was renamed in 1946 to avoid confusion with a beach of the same name in Victoria. In 1887, a large pearling fleet was wrecked by a cyclone off the harbourless beach. The Great Northern Highway parallels the beach from Port Hedland to Broome.