By Phil Jarratt
If you’re relatively new to Noosa, or if you don’t get to Main Beach too often, or if you just don’t pay attention to the state of the beach, you might think that Australia’s favourite beach always looks the way it does right now.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact we know Main Beach has had to fight for its existence from time to time since people started taking photos of it more than a century ago. The coming and going of sand has intensified since man decided to overrule nature and move the river mouth, but it has always been a factor, creating a Sahara of sand some summers and good waves but a narrow rocky strip in others.
As we await the arrival this month of the season’s first swell event with the potential to shift a mountain of sand, it seems timely to reflect on seasons past, with the help of Heritage Noosa and my fellow historians and wave watchers, Stuart Scott and Gary Clist. Let’s tell the story in pictures.
A. 2021: Stuart Scott shot this picture of the surf club stairs to the beach buried under record levels of sand last month.
B. 1948: Over the summer of 1947-48 three destructive cyclones in quick succession clobbered Noosa, engulfing the Woods campground and washing Main Beach and its lifeguard tower away. Young photographer and surfer Kevin Freeman shot this early January photo of the destruction along the front.
C. 1967: Stuart Scott shot this photo in July of the cliff in front of Tingirana where once was beach. Cyclone Dinah earlier in the year was memorable for its quality surf, but by winter Hastings Street residents had taken to dumping rocks along the foreshore to try to protect their homes.
D. 1968: This photo from the Heritage Noosa archive shows intrepid bathers venturing out into storm surge conditions at Main Beach with waves breaking on the seldom seen Laguna Bay bombora.
E. 1969: Okay, enough is enough! Stuart Scott photo of construction underway at First Point on the infamous rock wall that can still be seen during major swell events today.
F. 1971: Gary Clist photo of the rock wall and the short-lived wooden groyne.
G. 1974: In the wake of Cyclone Wanda, Gary Clist shot this picture of a king tide lashing the remains of Main Beach.
H. Late 70s: Stuart Scott photo of a surf carnival in progress in rather difficult conditions at Main Beach.
