By Adam Carey
The Gold Coast’s iconic, skyscraper-lined surf beaches have been all but obliterated by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, with an estimated 80 per cent of the sand washed out to sea.
Queensland’s second-largest city entered the recovery phase on Tuesday after several days of wild weather closed schools and businesses and left more than 60,000 properties without power.
Powerlines were blown down, traffic lights were out, and trees toppled at the height of the slow-moving storm, which was downgraded from cyclone status before it reached the Australian coast.
Gold Coast locals Cade Wenngren and Samantha Stubbs inspect the beach erosion.Credit: Justin McManus
But the damage to the Gold Coast was most stark along its beaches, where the ocean has gouged sheer, two- to three-metre cliffs into the golden sand in many places.
Beach entrances were still mostly roped off on Tuesday, and Queensland Police were threatening to issue fines of up to $16,000 to anyone who enters the water to swim.
Infrastructure such as beach stairs, life-saving platforms and fences along the foreshore have been damaged or destroyed.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate (left) has pledged to replenish the devastated beaches in time for the Easter holidays.Credit: Justin McManus
Political leaders urged holidaymakers not to cancel plans to visit the Gold Coast during the Easter holidays in April, with the city’s mayor, Tom Tate, committing to replenishing the beaches with fresh sand by then. He could not say how much that effort would cost.
“Eighty per cent of our beach is gone into the ocean, but there’s a solution for that,” Tate said. “We’ve already locked it in.
“I have a dredge coming through as we speak … and what we do there is we will dredge the sand that’s in the ocean and pump it through the sky, like we did in 2017.”
Tate said the Gold Coast faced more damaging and costly storms as the climate changes, but that the city was prepared to use engineering solutions, such as dredging and sea wall strengthening, to protect its greatest natural asset.
Fallen tree branches litter the streets of the Gold Coast following ex-tropical cyclone Alfred. Credit: Justin McManus
Tens of thousands of residents were still without power by late Tuesday, with the situation likely to persist for 5 per cent of properties until at least Friday, according to state-owned energy company Energex.
But many other Gold Coast residents were putting the storm behind them and getting on with life. The coastal promenade was busy with joggers, dog walkers, and even snap-happy tourists.
Locals Cade Wenngren and Samantha Stubbs were walking their dog in the morning and said they had never seen the beach in such a state of ruin.
“We’ve seen some good storms in the last 20 years … Never seen one like this though; this one was different,” Wenngren said.
Wenngren, a developer, estimated the storm had cost his business $100,000. He moved his staff into a suite in the Meriton, one of the city’s tallest high-rises, because his own office had lost power.
Other Gold Coast businesses were picking up the pieces after a costly few days in which many were forced to close their doors.
Staff at The Winey Cow, a cafe just 50 metres from the Surfers Paradise foreshore, closed for four days during the worst of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, with ankle-deep floodwater and persistent leaking from the ceiling.
Manager Bonnie Cullen said the business lost tens of thousands of dollars. Unable to access sandbags, they resorted to using tea towels in a futile attempt to stem the rising waters.
“With our location, being close to the water, we were completely flooded out. It was coming in from everywhere and anywhere, whether it was the doors, through the roof.”
Winey Cow manager Bonnie Cullen says the cafe was ankle deep in water after the storm hit.Credit: Justin McManus
Tuesday was the first day the business resumed full service. Cullen said some of her young staff still have no power at home and have used the cafe’s upstairs rooms to study.
“We’re like a hostel at the moment,” she said.
One of those staff members, Miranda, 21, is living in a share house with six full-time university students with no power. She and her housemates were forced to bin two fridges full of food on the weekend.
“Two days ago, we had to do a cull of all the food that was left in the fridge, and we have just been eating the dried goods,” she said.
Another business owner, Wayne McCrae, took a less sympathetic line with his staff. McCrae, a former Queensland mining executive, now runs a bakery in Main Beach. He ignored authorities’ calls to close his doors at the height of the storm but was forced to close for one day because his staff refused to come to work.
“The anxiety was unbelievable. One of them was petrified. They used every excuse they could,” McCrae said.