Whitest beach in the world. Hyams in Australia

This beach on the east coast of Australia holds the Record Guinness for having the whitest sand in the world. But I think that this organisation has forgotten to include in this World Record that it also has the noisiest sand.

Last month, taking advantage of a lightning visit to Australia to spend a few days with the castaway David Glasheen, I was lucky to visit this beach of Jervis Bay, not only to analyse the sand to find out the composition of these tiny grains but see for myself the true colour of the sand and to compare it with that on our desert islands.

My first surprise came as I arrived at Hyams when I stepped onto the beach. There was a kind of high scraping/squeaking sound every time I took a step on the sand. It was a similar noise to that when walking on snow, but noisier. My surprise was greater when I crouched to rub the sand with my hand and it sounded like someone cleaning windows with newspaper. I recorded this video on the same day and here above you can hear the sound for yourselves.

After analysing the sand I saw perfectly round grains of white quartz, almost transparent with an almost 100% purity, as it would be with great difficulty to observe any other type of grain. Here on the left you can see a blown up image of the sand, a photo I took on the same beach so you can see what I’m talking about.

WHY IS THAT SOUND?

It isn’t really known why the sand squeaks as it does, and scientists from different parts of the world cannot agree on this theme. However, they have come to the conclusion that for sand to squeak it must present the three conditions explained on this page of Wikipedia, and without doubt I believe that this beach meets the three conditions perfectly.

It’s important to indicate that our desert island beaches are also made up of fine, white sand, but though very difficult to believe, they aren’t made up of quartz, they’re made up of fish poo !  Also, desert island tropical and coralline beaches, although white, never get to shine like the Hyams beach nor, obviously, to sound like it either!!

Moreover, however idyllic a fine Sandy beach may seem, be it made up of quartz or excrement of parrot fish, myself and most of our voluntary castaways prefer beaches of coarse sand, those made up of tiny pieces of shells. I have already explained the reasons in detail in this article.

If you have enjoyed reading about this beach and the dazzling colour of its sand then please share the article with your friends, especially those who are beach lovers. 

A million thanks for your support.