Position 28 06 00S  157 27 32 E

Rain, rain and more rain. We travelled up to the Gold Coast – crossed back into Queensland and stayed beside the river in a caravan site at Palm Beach.  The weather has been awful for about three weeks now, in fact not stopped raining really since cyclone Oswald.  Queensland and northern New South Wales coastline has been battered by big waves. 

View through the spray of Surfers Paradise – lots of tower blocks.  Most are hotels or hotel apartments on the coast.  Those off the coast seem to be private apartments.

Nothing stops a surfing competition.  This was Quicksilver Pro 2013..

Closer view of Surfers Paradise – still a lot of sea spray.

The beaches have been closed for swimming and surfing, in the life guard sections, for ages now and due to big erosion over last few days the beaches here have all been close.  We went for walk along Broad Beach, which is just south of Surfers Paradise.  No paradise here for surfers at the moment!  Instead of walking down to the beach you have to jump 1 – 3 m or more.  A lot of beach has been washed away, ladders and fences washed away etc.  A life guard hut had to be craned out before it toppled over at Miami (I think) beach.  Anyway, here’s some beach views of the erosion:

You can see some of the debris washed up on the shore.

Another river mouth.  The tide was really running at this time.  You can just about make out the edge of a sediment plume in the second picture.

This has to be classic Australian.  This guy was out sailing and fishing at the same time:

Paul looking good.

Rhu looking wet and then dry!  If you look at the base of the leading light you can see the concrete slab that has been dislodged in the recent bad weather.  The footpath had been cordoned off, but everyone just ignored that and went to the end of the causeway.

You get some fantastic signs in Australia.