Close call as car buried by Rainbow Beach sand slide

The owners of a car caught in a spectacular sand slide between Noosa and Rainbow Beach were ‘lucky’ to escape without injury.

Epic Ocean Adventures Noosa owner Tyron Van Santen says the owners of a car swallowed by a spectacular sand slip at Rainbow Beach were ‘lucky’ to escape without injury. Pictures: Epic Ocean Adventures Noosa

A Cooloola Coast tour operator says the owners of a car caught up in massive sand slip south of Rainbow Beach were lucky to escape serious harm.

Epic Ocean Adventures Noosa owner Tyron Van Santen was driving on the beach early on Wednesday afternoon when he saw the slip unfold before his eyes.

“It happened in about three or four stages,” Mr Van Santen said.

He heard a “big bang” as the slip started near The Sticks about 100m north of the opening of a rapidly vanishing large lagoon at Double Island Point.

Mr Van Santen and those on board could only watch as the slide brought waves of the iconic coloured sand and trees crashing down on to the beach - one of those vehicles was partially buried.

Onlookers with the car partially buried by a Rainbow Beach sand slide on Wednesday, August 3, 2023.

“One car got shoved by the slip into another,” Mr Van Santen said, adding things would have been much worse had the cars been parked closer inland or in a busier tourist period.

“It was very lucky no-one got hurt,” he said.

The sand slid on to cars parked along the beach south of Rainbow Beach, with tour operator Tyron Van Santen saying one man had to move fast to get out of its way.

He was unsure if any of the people were in the car at the time of the slide but one said they “had to move pretty quick” to get away.

He said the owners of the worst impacted car, which was half buried by sand and vegetation, managed to pull the vehicle out with the help of straps.

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The owners of the car freed it from the sand slide before driving it away in the direction of Rainbow Beach. Pictures: Epic Ocean Adventures Noosa

The driver’s door was damaged in the slide, Mr Van Santen said, and its owners soon jumped back into the vehicle and headed back towards Rainbow Beach.

There had been 7.6mm of rainfall at Rainbow Beach on Wednesday, but Mr Van Santen said strong winds and ongoing erosion from water flow in the past 18 months were likely the bigger contributors to the slip.

It was not a new phenomenon either, but the first he had seen with his own eyes.

“I’ve seen some smaller ones, but never seen one engulf a car,” he said.