Beaches of the Victorian Coast and Port Phillip Bay provides the first description of all Victorian ocean and Port Phillip Bay beaches. It is based on the results of the Victorian section of the Australian Beach Safety and Management Program. This book has two aims. First, to provide the public with general information on the origin and nature of all Victoria's beaches, including the contribution of geology, oceanography, climate and biota to the beaches, and information on beach hazards and safety. Second, to provide a description of each beach, including its name(s), location, access, facilities, dimensions and the character of the beach and surf zone. The book comments on the suitability of the beach for bathing, surfing and fishing, with special emphasis on the natural hazards. Based on the physical hazards, all beaches are rated in terms of public safety and scaled from 1 (least hazardous) to 10 (most hazardous).

On holidays? Walking? Just visiting the coast for a short outing? This book will enrich your appreciation of what you see. Common coastal animals and plants - with lots of photos Landforms - how they are influenced by geology Local history How to get to lesser-known spots

The book addresses the questions: Is Australia’s rapidly growing human population and economy environmentally sustainable for its estuaries and coasts? What is needed to enable sustainable development? To answer these questions, this book reports detailed studies of 20 iconic Australian estuaries and bays by leading Australian estuarine scientists. That knowledge is synthesised in time and space across Australia to suggest what Australian estuaries will look like in 2050 and beyond based on socio-economic decisions that are made now, and changes that are needed to ensure sustainability. The book also has a Prologue by Mr Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia, which bridges environmental science, population policy and sustainability.

This new Encyclopedia of Coastal Science stands as the latest authoritative source in the field of coastal studies, making it the standard reference work for specialists and the interested lay person. Unique in its interdisciplinary approach. This Encyclopedia features contributions by 245 well-known international specialists in their respective fields and is abundantly illustrated with line-drawings and photographs. Not only does this volume offer an extensive number of entries, it also includes various appendices, an illustrated glossary of coastal morphology and extensive bibliographic listings.

What sight is more beautiful than a high-energy beach facing lines of rolling white breakers? What battleground is more ferocious than where waves and sand meet? What environment could be more exciting to study than this sandy interface between sea and land? And yet how much do we know about sandy beaches? Open sandy beaches are amongst the most neglected fields of scientific study in the coastal environment. This situation exists despite their great extent along most temperate and tropical coastlines and their value as recreational areas and buffer zones against the sea. The traditional oceanographer does not venture into the surf zone while the terrestrial ecologist stops short at the high water mark. Only a few coastal engineers have grappled with the problem of sand and sediment movement as it influences their construction of harbours and pipelines. The marine biologist on the other hand has regarded estuaries, coral reefs and rocky shores, obviously teeming with life, as more fruitful areas for study than the apparently poor animal life on sandy beaches. Sandy beaches have therefore tended to become a scientific no man's land. Over the last decade this situation has begun to improve. Recent work on high-energy beaches has revealed that they may in fact be rich and productive and fertile areas for study. It has even been suggested that beaches and their adjacent surf zones may constitute viable marine ecosystems.

This unique richly-illustrated account of the landforms and geology of the world’s coasts, presented in a country-by-country (state-by-state) sequence, assembles a vast amount of data and images of an endangered and increasingly populated and developed landform. An international panel of 138 coastal experts provides information on “what is where” on each sector of coast, together with explanations of the landforms, their evolution and the changes taking place on them. As well as providing details on the coastal features of each country (state or county) the compendium can be used to determine the extent of particular features along the world’s coasts and to investigate comparisons and contrasts between various world regions. With more than 1440 color illustrations and photos, it is particularly useful as a source of information prior to researching or just visiting a sector of coast. References are provided to the current literature on coastal evolution and coastline changes.

This book is a guide for readers who are curious about what they see along the coast. What are the animals and plants that live along the shore? How were the rock layers in the cliffs formed? What was this place like 150 years ago? Who used this decrepit jetty? The core of the book takes a journey around the coast near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, beginning on Mornington Peninsula’s ocean shore at Point Nepean then heading east towards Flinders. It covers all of the Western Port coast around to San Remo as well as the shores of Phillip Island and French Island. This 320 kilometre shoreline offers a variety of scenery, from the magnificent cliffs of Cape Schanck and Cape Woolamai to the quiet backwaters at the top of Western Port. Just seventy kilometres from Melbourne, French Island can feel almost as remote as the outback, while nearby Cowes on Phillip Island is abuzz in the summer. An introductory chapter gives a brief overview of early history relating to the coast. There are traces of thousands of years of Aboriginal occupation of the area. You can tread in the footsteps of explorers like George Bass and early French navigators, and see the site of Victoria’s second prison settlement at Corinella. You may be interested in remnants of early industries including salt making and granite quarrying, and tourism hot spots of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries like Sorrento and Flinders. Most of the rock outcrops around Western Port are geologically young, but Cape Woolamai is formed from Devonian granite around 370 million years old. The chapter on landforms will point out these granites, as well as the solidified lava of volcanoes and sedimentary rocks deposited by ancient rivers and seas. Western Port is renowned for its wildlife and there are wonderful places where nature thrives. Visitors come to Phillip Island especially to see little penguins, seals and thousands of nesting short-tailed shearwaters. Almost all of the waters of Western Port are protected for migratory wading birds which feed on its vast mud flats. Mushroom Reef Marine Sanctuary, and French Island, Yaringa, Churchill Island and Port Phillip Heads Marine National Parks protect many kinds of sea and shore creatures. Belts of mangroves and wide saltmarshes may seem unappealing at first, but they will reward any efforts you make to appreciate them. The pictures in the chapter on animals and plants will help you to identify the species you are most likely to see.