Long-term Kingscliff resident Thomas Eady is a regular fixture on the beach at Kingscliff at the moment – monitoring just what has been happening in recent months
“These six photos cover from March 22, 2011, two days after the finish of the NSW SLSC Championships, to May 15, 2011 – all taken from the same position,” he said.
And Mr Eady is not the only one keeping a constant eye on the damage, with the Tweed Shire Council also monitoring the situation.
“The erosion is continuing at the southern end of Kingscliff Beach. The sand recently pumped onto the beach from Cudgen Creek has moved offshore and to the north in response to the wave and current conditions experienced at the moment,” Tweed Shire Council Natural Resource Management Coordinator, Jane Lofthouse said.
She said there had been a significant loss of sand from the embayments directly north of structures, such as Kingscliff training walls and Fingal Headland, over the last few weeks due to the current coastal conditions.
“The rock structure placed by Council along the foreshore of Kingscliff Beach is currently maintaining the park behind it but will be tested over the next few days with larger than predicted high tides expected.
“Without the recent placement of sand and the construction of the wall, the effects of this recent erosion event would have been significantly worse and would have claimed a much larger portion of Faulks Park.”
Mr Eady said his pictures illustrated graphically just how fast the beach was changing.
“In the order of dates, the first (picture) has a concrete block to the left and shows the distance to the edge of the beach escarpment,” he explained.
“Seven days later the Council employed a bulldozer to remove the escarpment and build a sand hill on which to erect two lines of fencing.
“Nine days later these fences have been put up with Dune Care Volunteers planting various forms of salt tolerant plants with a watering system installed along the landward fence. By which time the escarpment has moved inland exposing the first part of the rock wall built prior to the Surf Titles.
“Thirteen Days later the first section of the outer fence is gone with a section of this rock wall exposed.
“Twenty days later the entire outer fence is gone, including the work of the Dune Carers.
“The final photo three days later shows the rock wall exposed almost to the Surf Club building and the action of a 1.45 metre high tide.
“In the next five days the full moon tides will build to 1.77 metres which will breach this rock wall and remove the sand that is at the moment visible behind the wall which could lead to a collapse of this wall,” he said on May 16.
Ms Lofthouse said the rock structure placed by Council along the foreshore of Kingscliff Beach was currently maintaining the park behind it but she conceded it would be tested over the next few days with larger than predicted high tides expected.
“There is very little that Council can do until sand starts to return to this embayment naturally to replenish the sand,” she said.
“Council requests that people avoid using the section of Kingscliff Beach south of Cudgen Headland Surf Club as access to and from the beach is very dangerous and large rocks have been exposed.
Without the recent placement of sand and the construction of the wall the effects of this recent erosion event would have been significantly worse and would have claimed a much larger portion of Faulks Park.
