Tropical Seashores

Being the world's largest island, and with a third of the country lying in the tropics, Australia obviously has a huge and varied tropical coastline. In fact, the tropical part of Australia’s coast is about 40% of its total coastline. There are almost 600 islands off the coast of Queensland Australia alone.

The tropical coast of Australia includes some of its most famous and spectacular areas, such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Kimberley.

But even though these tropical shores look idyllic, they are prone to severe storms and cyclones, and many of the 'soft sand' beaches are in fact made up of sharp coral rubble.
One of the most pleasant aspects of exploring the tropical seashore is beach-combing. And one of the nicer and more well known elements of the flotsam and jetsam on a beach are the seashells. But, are there any dangerous seashells?

Large animals are not obvious along most beaches of tropical coasts and islands. The main animals seen are birds; mostly sea and shore birds.

Some of the more remote tropical islands, such as Heron Island and Michaelmas Cay, are used as breeding sites by birds. These coral cay are small and isolated, and thus lack predators.

exploring the tropical seashore...