Lee McCarthy
Inskip Point was a hot topic on social media this morning with a post from Gabe Bullis on popular Facebook page Word’s Out Rainbow Beach notifying members of a ‘sink hole’ outside Sarawak camping area.
As pointed out by Lindy Orwin of Cooloola Coastcare, the phenomenon is called a ‘near shore landslide’ not a ‘sink hole’ and has occurred at Inskip for dozens of years.
A chunk of the shoreline has collapsed into the ocean and while it has caused nothing like the damage of the sinkhole of 2015, these landslides can cause issues if you are not aware of them.
The area concerned is on the beach, not in the camping zone so there are no campers affected and as there is no 4WD access on the beach north of the Lead Lights, vehicles won’t be affected by suddenly coming across the landslide.
Lindy said, “This is not a sink hole. The water on the shore drops very steeply on this side of the channel of the bar and because the sand drops from 1 metre to 20m deep, it is a very steep cliff just like the coloured sands and in the same way it falls away, just as a landslide does on land.”
“It isn’t like a spring creating a feature, it is only from the sea water hitting the shore.”
She said you wouldn’t stand on the edge to look in as its unstable and the sand is very soft, so it is not good to stand on the edge.
“If you look at the beach in front of the lifesaving flags the sand moves in and out and the depth deepens gradually, however with a steep bank like the coloured sand cliffs or the water from the bar it can collapse in very easily as its very steep.”
We spoke to The Ice Man, Rob Gough who with wife Martine are based in Rainbow Beach and are very familiar with the coastline from Teewah Beach to Inskip Point, all within the Gympie Council Region.
Rob went for a look this morning and said these slips have been happening for years.
“Inskip Peninsula is a narrow sandy finger of land built up by wind and waves and the sand is forever moving.”
“Tidal channels are dynamic environments carrying sand backwards and forwards daily, depositing sand and then scouring it out again when the channel becomes constricted.
He said, “Is this the cause who knows? I am certainly no expert, but it has been happening for years, probably centuries.”
He asked, “I believe there were two earthquakes of the east coast last night. Was that a factor?”
Rob said, “Coastal environments are a dynamic restless environment, and the risk of sudden changes are small but ever present.”