🌊 A River at Rest
The Betka River sits just south of Mallacoota — a tidal stream that winds through tea-tree wetlands and paperbark forest before spilling into the Southern Ocean.
For a few weeks recently, the river mouth was closed by sand, sealing off the backwater from the sea. What remained was a mirror-flat landscape — water still as glass, sky doubled, and birds moving between reflections.
This is that moment, captured today in high clarity and full 360°.
🎥 Watch the Video
🎬 ▶ View the Betka Backwater Video
The footage takes you low over the channels and reed beds — you can trace the snaking flow through green forest to the sandbar at the coast.
Shot with DJI drone optics and balanced for natural light, it shows how calm and intricate the Betka system becomes when the ocean is cut off.
🌀 Explore the 360° Images
📸 Swipe, zoom, and spin through the 360° panoramas — look toward the ocean mouth, inland toward the forest, or straight up through the blue.
Each frame shows how the wetlands breathe between tides, a reminder that even still water is alive with movement below the surface.
🌾 A Living Landscape
The Betka isn’t just scenery — it’s part of the Mallacoota catchment system, where fresh and salt mix to sustain reeds, fish, and birdlife.
When the mouth closes, the water warms and clears, turning the backwater into a natural lens on the surrounding bush.
Locals walk the track to the viewing point, but few see it like this — from above, and all around.