Double Island faces indefinite shutdown after massive Qld landslide

Tourists and campers at a hugely popular regional Qld beach are facing significant travel delays after a massive landslide down cliffs more than 70m high cut access to the area.

Beach campers and holiday-makers travelling between Rainbow Beach and Noosa North Shore will need to find a new route after the popular sand “highway” between the towns was cut indefinitely by a massive landslide.

The popular stretch of sand was blocked at Double Island Point on Thursday when the slip happened about 4pm, with tonnes of sand, trees and rocks crashing down from dunes more than 70m high and on to the beach.

No one was injured in the landslide but Waterford resident Kerissa Kelly and her family were driving along the beach and had an extremely close call, arriving at the sand mass less than a minute after it collapsed.

Police initially cordoned off the area between the Rainbow Beach boat ramp and Double Island Point lagoons, before restoring access to Middle Rock at 7am on Friday.

Campers and tourists should not expect it to reopen any time soon this holiday season, either.

Double Island Point landslide pictures shared by Queensland Police on January 5, 2024.

Police said Friday it would “remain closed to public access indefinitely while excavation efforts are ongoing”.

It is understood the excavation of the sand is being carried out with the aid of Gympie Regional Council.

Police were unable to confirm how long they would have a presence at the site of the landslide.

Drivers looking to travel between the Teewah and Cooloola beaches and Rainbow Beach are being advised by locals to travel through the Freshwater Camping area of the Great Sandy National Park, about 15km south of the point.

The cause of the landslide has not been confirmed.

No one was injured in the landslide but Waterford resident Kerissa Kelly and her family were driving along the beach at Double Island Point and had an extremely close call, arriving at the sand mass less than a minute after it collapsed.

Wild weather which has ripped across the state since Christmas has inundated the region.

Rainbow Beach, less than 10km west, has had 377mm dumped on it since Boxing Day.

Rainfall at the point has been less, but the area still received 196mm in that same period.

The landslide was the second to occur at Double Island Point within the past five months.

A car was engulfed by a mass of sand in August, with its owners lucky to escape serious harm in the incident.

Police and Gympie Regional Council are working to excavate the landslide and restore access between Double Island Point and Rainbow Beach, but officers said the stretch would remain shut “indefinitely”.

One witness to the August landslide said it started with a “big bang” and unfolded in “three or four stages”.

A Department of Environment spokeswoman declined to comment on the incident while police were handling the matter.

In response to questions on whether the department held concerns about safety in the region, she referred to a DES alert about “unstable sand cliffs” published in the wake of the August landslide.

The warning includes that the cliffs and dunes along Rainbow and Teewah beaches “are unstable and can collapse without warning”.

“Falling boulders and landslides are common in this dynamic coastal environment and can result in serious injury or death,” the warning says.

It urges visitors to not climb the dunes, and stay clear of their bases at all times.

Originally published as Double Island faces indefinite shutdown after massive Qld landslide