PA2906-Coastal Hazard Assessment-R1 · MCU21/0212

                                                Internal use only




3           Historical Aerial Photograph Analysis
Aerial photography has been reviewed to understand the historical extents of beach movement at the site.
Figures 2 to 8 show the aerial photographs for 1972, 1974, 1981, 1988, 1994, 1999 and 2004 together
with the toe of the frontal dune captured by hand-held GPS in 2019 and 2021.

The beach was in an eroded state in 1971 and 1974, which was due to a high number of tropical cyclones
impacting the south-east Queensland coastline during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The 1974
photograph shows the beach in its most eroded state in the photographic record and outcrops of indurated
sand (i.e., coffee rock) can be seen adjacent to the dune vegetation.

From the 1981 photograph onwards the beach is seen to be recovering and accreting to its current
position show in Figure 1 (based on satellite imagery from 2021). There were 18 tropical cyclones within
200 kilometres of the site between 1960 and 1979, seven tropical cyclones between 1980 and 1999, and
three tropical cyclones since 2000. The reduced number of tropical cyclones affecting the southeast
Queensland region since 1980 is reflected in the beach recovery observed during this period.




Figure 2 1972 Aerial Photograph (qimagery.information.qld.gov.au)




15 October 2021      66 SEAVIEW TERRACE, SUNSHINE BEACH             PA2906-RHD-ZZ-XX-RP-Z-0001   8