How often does storm surge and king tides wash away beach front houses in Sydney noco?
I can't imagine it happening every year or seasonal climate changing all the time stuff.
My dear friend, I will take you on a journey back to the 1930's and 40's.
As a kid, my parents would take the family to Palm Beach on the Gold Coast for the annual 2 weeks holiday and then some long weekends..Palm Beach was 100 yards wide and ideal for surfing and fishing.....the sand dunes were 60 to 80 yards wide and you could count the number of houses between the road and the beach on one hand.....there was a 4 Square corner store and a pub......houses were scattered on the western side of the High Way with bush beyond.
On an average of a by annual event, the seas would become angry with king tides and the sand dunes would retreat some 20 to 30 yards towards the road leaving sand cliffs 6' to 8' high....Me and my siblings thought it was great fun jumping off the sand cliffs until my dear mother would scream at us not to do it in fear of being buried alive in a sand slide...Once the weather settled down the prevailing sea winds would blow the dry sands back up to form the original dunes and at times the sand would extend itself onto the road way....It was nature at work.
In 1962 a friend of mine told me of this beautiful block of land he had bought on Palm Beach and had started to build his retirement villa.....When I told him of my observations over the past years, I suggested to him that perhaps one day he may have to build a rock wall to save his house falling into the sea......Old Bill laughed at me....But in 1963, the very next year, natures fury struck again and old Bill had to build a rock wall to stop his house falling into the sea.....It cost him more than the cost of the house......then his next door neighbor had to do the same thing......I visited the Palm Beach a few years ago and was shocked to sea a narrow strip of beach confronted with a rock wall the entire length of the beach with ugly groins jutting out into the sea.
The same thing has been happening along the NSW Coast for years.......It happened several times on Kirra Beach and the narrow strip of land at Southport known as "Narrow Neck" which almost broke through on several occasions.
So I have no sympathy for people who build a house so close to the seas and I condemn the greedy local council at the time for allowing such development......A nature strip should have been the order of the day and Palm Beach would have looked like it was 80 years ago...
Climate change...yes of course it was climate change.