Wild weather caused massive beach erosion at Byron Bay Main Beach on 15 December. ‘This is certainly the worst we’ve seen,’ says local landcare group.
Photograph: Patrick Hamilton/AFP/Getty Images
In the shallows at Byron Bay, a man wanders the beach with a metal detector looking for once-buried treasure.
A few days since the ocean carved away most of the white sand, the shoreline bears a handful of markers that show the scale of the storm’s erosion damage.
There is a disability access ramp for wheelchair users that used to slope gently on to the sand. It now hangs more than 3 metres above the beach – like a scenic lookout.