At least one person died and four remain missing after Tropical Cyclone Alfred battered Australia’s east coast.
But its coastal erosion, not human casualties, that have got the country talking.
The Gold Coast is known for its smooth, sandy beaches packed with surfers, sunbathers and swimmers. Alfred has turned them into cliffs.
Some places in Queensland saw wind speeds above 100km per hour, while powerful waves, reportedly up to three-storeys high, swept away the sand.
Around 2,000 Olympic swimming pools worth of sand is estimated to be gone – 80% of Gold Coast’s beaches, according to city mayor Tom Tate.
Much of it was gone before Cyclone Alfred even hit, giving the coast a double blow by making it more vulnerable to erosive storm surges when it finally did make land.
Videos show people jumping down the resulting drops, only to struggle scrambling back up the steep inclines – some running right up to pathways and roads.
Even Gold Coast’s Main Beach, visited by 11 million people each year, has virtually evaporated.
The highest wave there was 12.3 metres high – huge, but not as big as the city’s skyscrapers right along the shore.
Where has all the sand gone? Not actually that far, according to Javier Leon, an associate professor in physical geography at the aptly name University of the Sunshine Coast.
That could be good news. Writing in The Conversation, Prof Leon said: ‘The sand isn’t gone forever. Most of it is now sitting on sandbars offshore.
‘Over time, many beaches will naturally replenish. But sand dunes will take longer. And there are areas where the damage will linger.’
How long, you might wonder, if you’re itching for a return of so-called Surfers Paradise.
It could be quite a while – weeks, months, even years for some features.
‘Our beaches will become steeper and wider again’, Prof Leon said.
But ‘some sand will have been washed into very deep water, or swept by currents away from the beaches’, he continued.
‘In these cases, sand will take longer to return or won’t return at all. Dunes recover more slowly than beaches. It may take years for them to recover.’
But Gold Coast’s government doesn’t want to wait. Tourism is worth £800million a year to the local economy, and supports more than 20,000 jobs.
The beach is a key part in that industry.
Already, heavy machinery has been deployed to make the beaches more accessible.
Dredging is due to begin next week, with a barge pumping washed-away sand back to the shore.
‘Our priority is fixing the beaches… so we can get a number of kilometres back online for locals’, Mayor Tate said.
‘This time next week, I’d like to show that Surfers Paradise is really open for business and that way people can start booking flights.’
Almost half a million properties were left without power due to Cyclone Alfred. That’s the most power cuts of any natural disaster in Queensland.
Heavy rainfall caused flash floods, which even attracted sharks into Queensland’s inland canals.
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