Sunshine Coast Daily Photo

Monday 31 January 2011

Among the sandbags

Seeking shelter among the sandbags at Maroochydore, making the most of recent erosion I suppose.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

It's interesting the way it's hanging round, all this rubbish. I suppose it's higher than the high tide mark, but that doesn't explain the fact that it's becoming progressively smaller in size as time passes.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Always there

The rescue boys have been working overtime of late, but it's nice to see them buzzing the coast, keeping an eye on things.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Dunes

Mostly the rubbish is bits of broken sugar cane washed down the Maroochy River and pummelled in the surf. It makes a nice defining line though to keep people off the dune grasses.

Cotton Tree

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Flotsam

The great rafts of flotsam that were left after the floods are starting to dissipate, but there are still plenty of pallets and logs and places to leave one's towel.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Not Advised

The people in the surf had obviously just swum from Fiji, or they would have taken note of the sign and not risked their lives.

And they did get a little upset when the lifeguard arrived and suggested they move back to the patrolled area.

Maroochydore

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Not your average driftwood

The power of the rivers, and for that matter, the ocean as well is not to be trifled with. As this tree discovered, to its dismay, washed down from the hinterland somewhere, enjoying a holiday on the beach.

I rather like it there, and hope that no one passes in a bulldozer any time soon.

Cotton Tree

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

After the floods

A week after the floods and the flotsam has begun to crumble in to bite sized chunks. The holiday beachgoers are undeterred.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Gone to the Beach

By mid morning, and just a bit of blue in the sky, the flats are wide open, but everyone is across the road at the beach.

Maroochydore

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Barbecue

All this rain keeps the barbecues clean at least.

King's Beach
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Golden Beach Welcome

Welcome roundabout Golden Beach

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Golden Railing

Night view of Caloundra over a golden railing at Golden Beach.

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Crazy times

The wind blows long lines of foam into patterns that look for all the world as though they have been painted on, as Caloundra is about to disappear under another month's supply of rainfall.

View to Caloundra

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After the storm

In Pumicestone Passage, the water is stained almost black with tannin from weeks of deluge washing through the Ti Trees. Even in its protected waters there's a little foam left to remind us of the fury that was wrought.

Golden Beach
© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Glasshouse Sunset

A week or two ago, the rain stopped for long enough for the sunset to show itself for the first time in a month.

But the photo is a "cheer-up" postcard of one of her favourite spots for Cara in Brisbane who is in the middle of post - flood clean up.

I hope that she, and everyone round the state (and now the Country pretty much!) can find the resilience to battle on in the weeks ahead. In coming days when the breakfast TV crews have gone, and the incredible hoards of volunteers have disappeared, those who have been impacted will have new battles to fight.

I hope that we will be there to provide support then!

Seventh Floor
"Riviera"
Golden Beach
© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Gnarliness

As I age and my body shape starts to change, and I begin to develop lumps on my joints and a bit of an incline in my posture, I wonder if it's because of all the time I've spent beside the beach, standing against the wind and the waves.

King's Beach
© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Waterproof

It's not just photographers who suffer from cabin fever after a few days of rain.

King's Beach
© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Ever Vigilant

The volunteer life savers keep their eye out for even the foolhardy. Here they keep a watchful eye on a surfer swimming across the bar at Pumicestone Passage on an outgoing tide.

Meanwhile across the rest of the state, mostly the floodwaters are slowly beginning to recede. The drama and the stories continue, and thousands of volunteers are involved in searching for the missing, and commencing the heartbreaking clean up.

King's Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Watching for News

The signs all say "no vacancy" yet there is not a sign of life. Everyone is inside glued to the Television watching the floods creeping up seventy kilometres to the south.

We're thinking of you Brisbane, (and not forgetting the other towns in Queensland, which have already been underwater for a week or more).

Anyone wishing to contribute to the flood relief fund may do so via the Queensland Government's Website.

Apartments at King's Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

View from a fishbowl

By now the world is aware that a significant crisis is upon Queensland and for that matter many other areas of Australia. We have watched for weeks as the rain has continued without relenting, getting some sort of appreciation for the view a fish has from it's bowl.

Now we watch in horror as the search continues for scores of people swept away in their houses during yesterday's flash floods, and as the waters rise over the next few days to take a much more silent toll. In Brisbane, seventy kilometres to our south, 9,000 houses are expected to be indundated, perhaps 35,000 will be effected in some way, and we watch helpless and can do nought but hope and pray that the damage will be limited to property as the water rises over the next few days.

Thank-you to all those who have enquired about my well being, we are not in danger, and as dry as the rain will allow us to be.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Trouble in the air

Most will know it's been a bit dampish round these parts for a while.

On the sixteenth of December last, we had a bit of a break in the constant rain, just sufficiently long enough to allow a storm front to cross. This one carried a bit of hail with it.

Cotton Tree
© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Touring

I think I'd be inclined to look at the view too.

A rather pleasant means of getting around I think, (except when it comes time to paddle).

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Gasp!

I don't mind admitting it, as I walked out of the caravan park at Cotton Tree and saw the reflections through the sand flats, I gasped!

Maroochy River, Low Tide.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Wax on.. Wax off

Of course I jest. The wax is going on, and that's where it's going to stay.

It's fascinating to me that in this day of sticky silicones and plastic mats that don't slip, that wax is still for many if not most, the preferred method of keeping oneself on a surfboard.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Looking Back

If you were to look back just before entering the water off Alex Headland, this is what you'd see!

Alexandra Headland.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Danger - Sharks

After lots of rain, the river stains the surf brown. They say it is dangerous to swim in these conditions, that sharks are abundant at these times.

I have no reason to doubt them, but people still do, and the sharks seem to leave them alone for the most part.

And the mix of water colours is quite nice in a strange way.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Just a month ago, the waves were almost devoid of surfers. The kids were at school and everyone had a nice orderly go, even if the waves were slightly undersized.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Ooof!

Getting wet for the first time is best done, in my humble opinion, quickly.

Alternatively, there's a particular point in time during the process where for an instant the water feels as though it's frozen, and even though one is standing on tippy toes, it's no longer high enough to prevent the inevitable.

It's enough to make one's shoulders go tense in anticipation!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Civility

I see this car often, and chuckle every time.

How, I wonder does a less than civil celebrant behave?

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

While there's a window vacant, there's hope!

Back to business. The financial indicators tell us life isn't too bad.

The press tells us it is, so like sheep we believe them. Perhaps one more agency could help let this office space? There is room for another sign after all.

Mooloolaba

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia