Garanhan (Macassan Beach)

37km from township

A long, wide beach of white sand contrasts with the rough-textured shelves of laterite that run parallel to the general line of the coast.

A narrow, dense strip of monsoon coastal vine forest overlies the rockshelf and a short walk behind the sand hills leads to a paperbark swamp. There are good shady picnic and camping spots under the casuarinas behind the rockshelf.

South of the sandy beach behind the rocky shelf is Wurrwurrwuy, where a Yolngu record of the annual visits of the Macassan traders is recorded as stone pictures.

Visitors can walk among the stone pictures and learn a little about the history of Yolngu contact with Macassans over hundreds of years.

Campsite 5 is a small campsite