The sea at Main Beach on the Gold Coast looks calm and peaceful right now.
Not long ago the seas were huge and destructive waves swept away sand from the beach, leaving steep cliffs.
This is not the first time it has happened. There have been cyclones and heavy seas regularly over the years and the beach gets battered. I can remember 1967 when the houses along the edge of the sea lost metres from their properties. Huge waves created by a cyclone took away most of the front yard of our friend while we stood watching in horror.
At that time the council created rock walls in an attempt to keep back the seas. Some of those rocks have been exposed in the last bout of destruction.
The sand usually builds up again slowly and the beach recovers. There are lots of high rise reasons to hope the sea stays calm for a while to allow some sand to return.
