Tea Tree Crossing is a summer-dry weather crossing. It begins off a section of the old highway 6 km south of Salt Creek, and crosses a lake bed, which is usually flooded in winter. It then runs through an active dune sheet for 1 km before reaching a hard packed 200 m wide deflation basin behind the beach (Fig. 4.28). This is the last crossing. North of here and up to Murray Mouth the 100 km long Coorong Lagoon separates the beaches and dunes from the highway.
The beach which begins with the coarse shell and wide high energy surf zone gradually changes over the first few kilometres north of the crossing into a finer sand, flatter firmer beach, which continues on this way to the Murray Mouth. The beach faces southwest directly into the persistent high southwest swell with waves averaging over 2 m, and breaking over 500 m out to sea, across a wide double bar surf zone. Massive dunes systems averaging 1.5 km wide back the beach (Fig. 4.29). During periods of lower waves well developed rips spaced approximately 500 m, through ranging in spacing from 300 to 900 m dominate the inner surf zone. The beach usually narrows in width in lee of the rips (called the rip embayment) and may be scarped.
Beach Length: 100km
Patrols
There are currently no services provided by Surf Life Saving Australia for this beach. Please take the time to browse the Surf Safety section of this website to learn more about staying safe when swimming at Australian beaches.
Click here to visit general surf education information.
SLSA provides this information as a guide only. Surf conditions are variable and therefore this information should not be relied upon as a substitute for observation of local conditions and an understanding of your abilities in the surf. SLSA reminds you to always swim between the red and yellow flags and never swim at unpatrolled beaches. SLSA takes all care and responsibility for any translation but it cannot guarantee that all translations will be accurate.