Posted on June 16, 2025
An offshore dredge spewing a rainbow of sand towards Main Beach is just one part of the estimated $50 million effort to restore the 320,000 semi-trailer loads of sand lost from Gold Coast beaches during Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
But as fast as sand is pumped onto the shore, high tides and strong swells wash it away again.
The owners of multimillion-dollar properties at Main Beach are desperately trying to save what is left of their backyards.
What was once beachfront is now clifftop.
The beach is the narrowest it’s been in 25 years.
Jess Symmons, from Melbourne, is one of countless tourists who have made their annual sojourn north to escape the cold, only to find 30 metres of beach, and the coastal walkway, are missing.
“We couldn’t work out where the path had gone when we got here a couple of days ago, and yeah, we couldn’t work out how they were gonna rebuild it,” she said.
An off-shore dredge sends a rainbow of sand towards the beach.
“We usually access the beach along here every morning for a swim, so it just means that we have to change up our plans a little bit and head a bit further down.
“It’s sad without the lifeguards and you’ve got kids that want to swim in the ocean.”
Main Beach resident Tony Pound reckons, at times, the erosion is getting worse.
“It seems to be all working, but when they get a big tide or swell, it’s back to square one, you know, so they’ve got a bit of work to do.
“I can’t see that it’s gonna be finished for a long time.
“(Locals) are just a bit depressed about the whole thing and they were expecting quicker results but you know, it just can’t happen like that.”
Beachfront has become clifftop for this property.
The Gold Coast’s beaches are already some of the most managed and engineered in the world and much of the infrastructure needed to do the restoration work is already in place or under construction.
Geobags filled with sand are used to form artificial reefs, already in place at Palm Beach and Narrowneck, to bear the brunt of large swells before they reach the shore.
Sand that naturally collects at the Gold Coast Seaway is transported across to South Stradbroke Island or south to Surfers Paradise, Narrowneck and Main Beach via underground pipelines, usually during winter when the beaches are quiet.
But it’s a slow process.
The Gold Coast City Council estimates it could take three years for beaches to recover from the damage wreaked by Alfred.
Ratepayers have been hit with a one-off $10 levy to cover the clean-up bill.
But there’s no guarantee there won’t be further destructive weather events before the recovery is complete.
Surfers Paradise has lost 30 metres of beach.
“The three pillars of sand, sea walls and dune vegetation isn’t really cutting it because climate change is increasing, sea levels are rising, storm surges are increasing, all these factors are combining to make this problem worse,” Mark Ellis, a coastal erosion researcher from Bond University, said.
“Whether this is Main Beach, Wamberal, Collaroy, or Western Australia or New Zealand, this is happening across the world.
“I understand people want to maintain their assets… but how much is the ratepayer going to put into maintaining those private assets?
“In the long term, some of those houses might need to be removed or pushed back, you know, maybe create more of a green strip.
“This is the big discussion that we need to have, because sooner or later, you can build the wall higher, but the sea is going to keep on rising.”
He said the Gold Coast City Council’s Coastal Adaptation Plan, which sets out how the city will manage and mitigate coastal hazards up to 2100, may need to be significantly fast-tracked.
“Short term we need to be protecting what’s there, but long term looking to how we reduce the vulnerability of the coastal strip because cyclones, as we know, are getting stronger, waves are getting more intense… we just can’t keep up… the council has seen that it can’t keep up with the sand nourishment.
“We need to change the way we think about coastal property, because everyone loves to live at the beach and we don’t begrudge them living there but society needs to be looking at how we can move forward in the future with the climate impact.”
