Beach erosion is 'worst' seen
HIGH tides and large seas have battered the Cooloola Coast over the weekend eroding fragile sand dunes and undermining the surf tower.
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HIGH tides and large seas have battered the Cooloola Coast over the weekend eroding fragile sand dunes and undermining the surf tower. Life guard on duty at Rainbow Beach Lleam Rees said the high seas started on Tuesday but only really started eating into the sand dunes during the weekend.
He said when he left his post on Thursday afternoon the sand was about two metres in front of the surf tower and when he arrived for work yesterday morning it was a metre behind the tower.
“It is the worst erosion on the main beach I've seen,” Mr Rees said.
“The back legs of the surf tower are exposed.”
A section of sand dune, which is five metres wide by three metres deep, has been washed out to sea by the wild seas, taking large trees and council fencing with it.
The life guard is expecting more erosion to occur over the coming nights.
“There is supposed to be a tide of 2.4 metres tonight (last night) and another high tide tonight,” Mr Rees said.
“We have had the beach closed to swimmers on and off for the last few days.” One of Mr Rees' Life Guard colleagues had to make a rescue on Thursday after a surfer lost his board in rough seas and signalled for help.
He said the surf was full of debris and the large waves and a severe sweep made swimming treacherous.
Gympie Regional Council has barricaded off dangerous beach entrances that have turned into cliffs and is waiting for seas to subside before any work is started to clean up the beach. Gympie Regional Mayor Ron Dyne said council had inspected the surf tower and it wasn't in danger of collapsing. “It is not about to fall over,” Cr Dyne said.
“It looks precarious but the piers are embedded into rock.
“It is pointless doing anything at the moment. We will wait until the tides stabilise and the seas abate and do some dune refurbishment after that.”
Originally published as Beach erosion is 'worst' seen
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