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Previous workers have proposed that northward‐directed bedload transport dominates the inner shelf of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. Results from a sediment sampling survey along the 10 m isobath between Bowen and Cape York reveal a series of northward trends of increasing sediment maturity and demonstrate pervasive north‐directed sediment transport interacting with a succession of sediment (fluvial) sources. South of the Tully River, the occurrence of limited compositional variability indicates significant mixing on the inner shelf. However, further north the data are highly variable, suggesting that sediment inputs from individual rivers may be retained relatively close to source. This may be related to a greater sediment trapping efficiency within northern embayments and/or by lower net rates of along‐shelf transport.

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