REMEMBER WHEN

Friday April 28, 1989

REMEMBER when the Gold Coast’s beaches were devastated in early 2013 by extropical cyclone Oswald?

It wasn’t the first time the Glitter Strip’s most famous asset was smashed, with 1989 a particularly damaging year.

In that year, remedies for the massive erosion were to be proposed in a special report to state Cabinet.

They were to be tabled in May 1989 after government engineers assessed the damage from the weather that had swept the region. Alderman Trevor Coomber demanded the Ahern Government do more to fix the beaches.

“The Gold Coast is a jewel in the crown of Queensland tourism and I don’t believe the Government can any longer ignore the problem,” he said.

“I hope something can be achieved and the May meeting between the QLD and NSW premiers, Mike Ahern and Nick Greiner, can resolve the matter once and for all.”

Ald. Coomber was chairman of the council’s beach and foreshore committee under then-mayor Lex Bell.

He told the Bulletin the city’s beaches were in a “sorry state” after near-cyclonic seas stripped the beaches of sand.

Ald. Coomber said the council would stick to its previous decision to not do any major sand replenishment works, which he believed was a state matter.

Wave heights exceeded 11 metres the same night Alan Bond’s XXXX schooner was left to ride out the huge swells.

Beach protection authorities used a light plane to assess the damage by air, with reports of beach fencing and access ramps being washed into the sea.