‘Don’t get it’: US tourist baffled by bizarre rumour about Aussie beaches

A woman travelling in Australia has been left scratching her head after learning our beaches make a particular noise.

A US woman travelling in Australia has been left baffled after hearing the sand on Australian beaches “squeaks” when you walk on it.

Claire Dinhut, 28, a popular food content creator and cookbook author, is visiting Sydney while doing her book tour and staying in Bondi Beach.

While documenting her travels on TikTok, she told her nearly one million followers that she’d heard a bizarre rumour about Aussie beaches before coming here.

“Everyone was like, ‘The sand is going to be squeaky’,” she said.

But when she went to test the claim out, she was left far from satisfied.

“Guys, I don’t get it,” she whispered while digging her feet into the sand.

“It’s not that squeaky”.

“But it’s beautiful! It’s beautiful soft grains,” she added.

A tourist has been left baffled after hearing a rumour that Aussie beaches squeak. Picture: TikTok/@CondimentClaire

Aussie commenters quickly weighed in, with one saying, “Some beaches are more squeaky than others”.

“Go to Victoria, there’s a beach there literally named after how squeaky it is,” said another.

And someone else replied, “Wait ‘till you get to QLD, lots of squeaky beaches”.

“You have to go down south or way further north for the squeaking!” pointed out yet another commenter.

The sound of sand squeaking is due to friction between evenly sized particles, according to ABC Science.

“The frictional energy due to this shearing makes the sand grains vibrate,” it says on the site.

“These vibrating sand grains transfer their energy to the air pockets between them, thus making the air vibrate.

“When these vibrations finally reach our ear, we hear them as a squeak, a whistle or a yelp.”

She went to Bondi Beach and didn’t hear any squeaking. Picture: TikTok/@CondimentClaire

It’s true that there is a Victorian beach called ‘Squeaky Beach’ that earned its nickname due to the high-pitched sound it produces.

Parks Victoria explains, “The famous white sand of Squeaky Beach is so named because of the noise it makes when you stroll along it.

“The fine, rounded grains of quartz sand compress under your feet, creating a high-pitched squeak”.

In 2023, a US expat went viral after she shared a TikTok of the “insane” noise she heard while walking on the sand on a beach in the Gold Coast.

“This is literally insane, I’ve never heard squeaky sand before,” she remarked, before asking her followers how and why this phenomenon occurs.

“Usually happens more when it’s hot,” one user wrote, while a second added: “It happens a lot on Australian beaches.”

Originally published as ‘Don’t get it’: US tourist baffled by bizarre rumour about Aussie beaches