Ocean Beach is a long sandy beach which runs along the Pacific Ocean coast of south Dunedin, New Zealand. It stretches for some three kilometres from Saint Clair in the southwest along the coast of Saint Kilda to the foot of Lawyer's Head in the east. The beach is a popular recreation area for Dunedinites for swimming, surfing, and walking.
The beach is divided into three roughly equal lengths, known as Saint Clair Beach, Middle Beach, and Saint Kilda Beach. Access is easiest at the Saint Clair end, with steps and ramps down to the beach from Saint Clair Esplanade. The esplanade is the site of several cafes and restaurants. At its end, also the western end of the beach, is the Saint Clair salt-water swimming pool, the city’s oldest pool, opened in 1884. [1] The pool has been upgraded on several occasions, most recently in 2002. [2] A short walking track leads southwest from the pool to Second Beach, a small stony beach sitting at the bottom of the basalt cliffs of Forbury Head.
Saint Clair Beach is a popular surfing venue, as well as having a patrolled swimming area. Shark nets have been deployed one kilometre out from the beach every summer since 1970, [3] making this a safe swimming area. Major surf lifesaving and surfing championships are regularly hosted at Saint Clair Beach. The western end of Saint Clair Beach is marked by a series of old wooden posts, the remains of an old breakwater groyne. These posts are often erroneously thought by Dunedinites and visitors to be the remains of a jetty. During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, there were several groynes along the beach which protected it from erosion. The groynes have fallen into disrepair since that time, with only a handful of posts from the last groyne remaining in place.
The other major access-point to the beach is at Saint Kilda, where a sandy slope leads down to the sea from the road. Here, too, is a patrolled swimming area. Between the two access points is Middle Beach. This is backed by a series of high dunes topped by a walkway linking Saint Clair Esplanade with the Sir James Barnes Lookout, which offers views across south Dunedin from above Forbury Park Raceway. Behind these dunes are several of the city’s sports grounds, notably Kettle Park. The Ocean Beach Railway runs through these parks from the Otago Model Engineering Club’s premises close to the Saint Kilda beach access point.
In recent years the dunes have been subject to severe erosion, and measures have been taken by the Dunedin City Council to reinforce them. This is not the first time that erosion has threatened properties along this stretch of Dunedin’s coast. Heavy seas during the 1890s and early 1900s caused loss of land close to Saint Clair, and the current esplanade is sited along the line of the first sea wall to be built along this stretch of coast, built between 1911 and 1913. [4]
Despite being a well-frequented beach within an urban area, Ocean Beach is regularly visited by a wide array of wildlife. Both seals and sea lions are occasional visitors, as are blue penguins.
A groyne, built perpendicular to the shore, is a rigid hydraulic structure built from an ocean shore or from a bank that interrupts water flow and limits the movement of sediment. It is usually made out of wood, concrete, or stone. In the ocean, groynes create beaches, prevent beach erosion caused by longshore drift where this is the dominant process and facilitate beach nourishment. There is also often cross-shore movement which if longer than the groyne will limit its effectiveness.
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
Dunedin is a city of 134,100 people in the South Island of New Zealand. The principal suburbs of Dunedin are as follows. Inner and outer suburbs are ordered by location, clockwise from the city centre, starting due north:
Coastal management is defence against flooding and erosion, and techniques that stop erosion to claim lands. Protection against rising sea levels in the 21st century is crucial, as sea level rise accelerates due to climate change. Changes in sea level damage beaches and coastal systems are expected to rise at an increasing rate, causing coastal sediments to be disturbed by tidal energy.
Kirra is a beach-side neighbourhood within the suburb of Coolangatta in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Lawyers Head is a prominent landmark on the coast of Otago, New Zealand. Located within the city of Dunedin, this rocky headland juts into the Pacific Ocean at the eastern end of the city's main beach, Saint Kilda Beach. It is named for the likeness of the cliff face to the profile of a lawyer in traditional legal wig.
Beach evolution occurs at the shoreline where sea, lake or river water is eroding the land. Beaches exist where sand accumulated from centuries-old, recurrent processes that erode rocky and sedimentary material into sand deposits. River deltas deposit silt from upriver, accreting at the river's outlet to extend lake or ocean shorelines. Catastrophic events such as tsunamis, hurricanes, and storm surges accelerate beach erosion.
St Kilda is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. A densely populated residential suburb, it lies on the southern part of the city's central plain, to the southwest of the head of the harbour and immediately north of Ocean Beach, parts of which are within the suburb and form its major geographical feature. Saint Kilda's 2001 population was 5,904.
Sandfly Bay is a sandy bay with large dunes 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of central Dunedin, New Zealand. Located on the southern side of Otago Peninsula, between Seal Point and the Gull Rocks on the western side of Sandymount, Sandfly Bay is a Department of Conservation wildlife reserve frequented by trampers.
Sir James George Barnes was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.
Forbury Park Raceway is a horseracing venue in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located close to the Pacific Ocean coast in the suburb of Saint Kilda.
St Clair is a leafy residential suburb of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located on the Pacific Ocean coast five kilometres from the city centre on the southwesternmost part of the coastal plain which makes up the southern part of the urban area, and also climbs the slopes of Forbury Hill immediately to the west of this plain. St Clair's 2001 population was 4,179.
Caversham is one of the older suburbs of the city of Dunedin, in New Zealand's South Island. It is sited at the western edge of the city's central plain at the mouth of the steep Caversham Valley, which rises to the saddle of Lookout Point. Major road and rail routes south lie nearby; the South Island Main Trunk railway runs through the suburb, and a bypass skirts its main retail area, connecting Dunedin's one-way street system with the Dunedin Southern Motorway. The suburb is linked by several bus routes to its neighbouring suburbs and central Dunedin.
South Dunedin is a major inner city suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located, as its name suggests, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) to the south of the city centre, on part of a large plain known locally simply as "The Flat". The suburb is a mix of industrial, retail, and predominantly lower-quality residential properties.
Victory Beach is located on the Pacific Ocean coast of the Otago Peninsula, in the South Island of New Zealand, 24 kilometres (15 mi) by road from Dunedin city centre and 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from the nearby town of Portobello. The longest beach on the peninsula, Victory Beach is located northeast of the entrance to Papanui Inlet and stretches for 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi). The beach's name derives from the wreck of the SS Victory on the beach in 1861.
Corstorphine is a suburb of southwest Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on the slopes of Calton Hill - a spur of Forbury Hill - between Caversham Valley and the Pacific Ocean. The suburbs of Saint Clair and Forbury lie to the east and south, and Caversham and Lookout Point lie to the north.
William Henry Valpy was a noted early settler of Dunedin, New Zealand. He is sometimes referred to locally as "The father of Saint Clair", as he was the first settler in the area now occupied by the suburb of Saint Clair.
Smaills Beach is a beach on the Pacific Ocean 7.6 kilometres (4.7 mi) southeast of the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located within the Ocean Grove Reserve adjacent to Tomahawk Beach, at the point where Otago Peninsula joins the mainland of the South Island, Smaills Beach is a white sand beach for much of its length, but its western end is covered in volcanic boulders. Just offshore from the beach, dominating the wave patterns of the surf, is the rocky outcrop known as Bird Island. Smaills Beach is renowned for its wildlife and popular with surfers.
Tomahawk Beach is a beach on the Pacific Ocean 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) southeast of the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located within the Ocean Grove Reserve between St Kilda Beach and Smaills Beach, at the point where Otago Peninsula joins the mainland of the South Island, Tomahawk Beach is a white sand beach popular with casual beach-goers and dog-walkers as well as surfers. Sand is extracted from the Tomahawk Lagoon channel, which runs across the beach, for commercial purposes and to prevent flooding.
Allans Beach is a white sand beach on the Pacific Ocean coast of Otago Peninsula, in the South Island of New Zealand. It forms the seaward shore of a large spit at the entrance to Hoopers Inlet. Allans Beach is 25 kilometres (16 mi) by road from Dunedin city centre and 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the small town of Portobello. It receives little human traffic but is known to trampers, surfers, and naturists.
Coordinates: 45°54′33″S170°30′30″E / 45.90917°S 170.50833°E