A beautiful beach with fine white sand, the remains of a shipwreck and an idyllic river that flows into the ocean.

This is Yellow Rock Beach on the west coast of King Island.

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Shipwreck on the shore

One of the main attractions of this beach is the visible part of the wreck of the Shannon, which was wrecked here in 1906 during a voyage from Launceston to Melbourne.

The wreck is about 30 metres from the beach and can often be walked to.

We were unfortunately unlucky to have large waves which made walking through the sand to get any closer impossible, but the wreck can still be seen from a wider part of the beach.

Yellow Rock Beach

A walk around the river and along the beach

From the parking lot, a marked walking trail about 10 minutes long leads to the beach through thick brush with views of the meandering Yellow Rock River.

Yellow Rock River

The wide beach runs north for about 2 km and is popular for walking, but due to the very gradual entry into the water, also for swimming if you don't mind the year-round cold water.