..,but definitely not “wasteland”)
To reach the mouth of the Warren River on Yeagarap Beach one has to traverse the Southern Hemisphere’s largest landlocked mobile dune system.
The Yeagarap Dunes cover nearly 30 square kilometres.
As it moves progressively further inland – at a rate of circa 4 metres per year – this dune system “eats”/buries forest, and reshapes/shifts/dams some local lakes and wetlands.
And the dune system’s own “mosaic” of vegetation patterns is far from “fixed”.
It ranges from very steep, nearly-naked sand dunes to dense bush “hollows”, where the leaf-littered sandy “floor” is exquisitely punctuated by wildflowers in springtime.
Our most recent visit was during a very wet winter.
We were too early for most wildflowers.
The sun (when visible) was quite high in the sky, so light conditions were ill-suited to landscape photography in the dunes.
As always, however, the Yeagarap Dunes offered no shortage of beauty…and surprise.
The most recent Ice Age was the Yeagarap Dunes’ “parent”:
Along the D’Entrecasteaux National Park coastline there was an extra 30 kilometres of land as the sea level had receded dramatically with water being taken up in ice in the northern hemisphere. Throughout the southern hemisphere, sand was deposited along the new coastline and the sand was piled up into massive dune systems by the winds.
When the Ice Age ended, the sea level rose and submerged much of the coastline. The Yeagarup Dune system was too large to be swallowed by the ocean and over the past 12,000 – 8,000 years has been blown further inland by the winds.
Click here for the full text which is quoted, above.
(Text provided by a local tour operator, whose identity will become known to you, if you click the link. As regular readers know, Pelican Yoga is in no way “monetised”, nor “sponsored”, nor compromised. Accordingly, that tour operator’s name is not present in this post. My beloved and I have had a deal of very happy experience with this particular outfit – most recently, on 16 August 2025. Unless you are an experienced, very capable driver of a suitable 4WD vehicle you should not attempt to “self-drive” into or through the Yeagarap Dunes)
Beautiful fotos as always Doug and Kathy.