Floodwater woman safe

A WOMAN who was caught wading in chest-high floodwater from the Mossman river yesterday afternoon has been confirmed safe.

Police were called shortly after 2pm when the woman was photographed in chesthigh floodwaters at Anich’s Bridge on Finlayvale Road, wading with what appeared to be a plastic bag.

Police attended the scene but found nothing.

Later, at roughly 4pm, a woman called police confirming herself to be the person in the image.

She told police she had returned home safe and well.

The bridge, on the way to the Silky Oaks Lodge, is closed due to the rising floodwaters.

It is unknown how the woman found herself in the water. Anich’s Bridge is a popular hop off point for swimmers who walk down to the Mossman River. PETER CARRUTHERS RECENT king tides responsible for the loss of more than 20 mature trees have sparked renewed concerns about erosion problems at the Holloways Beach foreshore.

With another 3.38m king tide expected at 9.20am today it is feared a much loved coconut palm still standing defiant in the face of big tides and wind swell whipped up by Tropical Cyclone Trevor may be lost.

Holloways Beach Environmental Education Centre teacher John Woolcock said he had not seen erosion this bad since starting work at the centre in 2015.

“About 20 mature trees are just gone, this is the worst I have seen,” he said.

Mr Woolcock said council had used excavators to change to the profile of the beach by reducing the gradient of the sand above the low tide mark, but work did not extend to the northern end of the foreshore.

He feared, if left unchecked, the beach would be lost forever.

“The beach will finish up in the mangroves up at Richters Creek. It’s only 15m away in some places,” he said.

Cairns Regional Council had earmarked $50,000 for erosion works in 2019-20, with a further $600,000 to be spent on mitigating against beach erosion in the 2020-21 budget.

A single groyne at Oleander St or a series of smaller groynes along the southern part of the beach were flagged as solutions in a report tabled last November, though the scope of the report did not expand north of Oleander St.

In 2016, council spent $640,000 to shift 30,000cu m of sand, changing the profile of the beach, but only in the area north of the stinger net.

“The work came up the access point at the end of Poinciana St and it has not gone any further,” he said.

“They came along with their diggers and piled all the sand up along the high tide mark from the stinger net to the end of Casuarina St.

“The erosion that has been caused by these king tides is nowhere near as bad as from Poinciana St north ….”

Mr Woolcock said the erosion was a concern for the continued operation of the environmental centre which runs camps for Queensland state school children.

Council told the Cairns Post that works to address erosion problems at Holloways Beach will not start until 2020.