Seashells at Cairns 1

Cairns doesn’t have a beach as you would normally understand it. Most of the area offshore is a vast acreage of mudflats on which it is forbidden to walk. However, there is a narrow fringe of sand along the northern part, accessible from the Esplanade that runs along the whole of the seafront. It is here, randomly dispersed, that assorted small seashells lie in natural drifts on the beach at Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

The photographs in this post show how these marine gastropod and bivalve shells look in situ, just as they were found, on the shore. Identifying them all to species is more problematical – particularly as it is not permitted to collect shells and take them out of the country! I did take lots of pictures while I was there, some in close-up and against the plain background of sand, rock, clothing, or even a plastic dish, so that I could have a go at putting a name to them later. And that is what I am about to do over this series of postings on the seashells I saw in Cairns and other Queensland localities when I was on holiday in 2011.