Kirra's history ...

Kirra used to be a perfect barrelling wave and every surfer on the globe had the dream to ride Australia’s icon wave once in their life. The long-hollow and bullet fast point break which spat out perfect tubes or so called “kegs” brought the most consistent swell during the Coral Sea cyclone season (December to March). During the winter months Kirra could produce bigger waves and usually worked its best between four to six feet. Kirra’s wave is divided into three sections, the Big Groyne, the Point and the Little Groyne. When the swell was big enough, and the conditions were right it used to be possible to link all the three breaks into an ultimate, endless up to 300 yard long ride. In April and May of 1972 Kirra was pumping for nearly six consecutive weeks. In 1975 the Queensland state titles were held in perfect 8ft Kirra tubes. Due to the outstanding waves and wave quality major professional surfing contests were regularly held at Kirra Point and World Champion surfers such as Kelly Slater and Occy claim it to be one of their favourite waves of all.





What is Kirra like now?

However, what remains of Kirra today is only a myth. There have been hardly any good waves since 1995 and when there is one it is only rideable when towed in, otherwise it is undoable even for world elite surfers. Not only Kirra’s point break is abandoned but also its beach site, which literally resembles a desert.

How could a world famous break dissappear within a decade?

On average, about 500,000 cubic metres of sand are swept northwards along the coast each year. In the early 60’s the extension of the breakwaters at the Tweed River Entrance interrupted this natural sand movement. As a result the sand was trapped at the southern side of the entrance, which caused a widening of the beaches to the south of the entrance while beaches to the north from Greenmount to Bilinga suffered erosion. In 1972 the Gold Coast City Council built the Big Groyne to trap sand on Coolangatta beach in order to avoid erosion. Firstly the surfer community was against the Groyne because they thought it would kill the break. In fact they were right about its effect on the wave quality and in the following year a deep hole formed off the groyne. However after the first year the sand returned naturally and Kirra was breaking as well as ever.
According to the Government the beaches were still not wide enough and the government thought they could solve the problem with sand dredging and pumping. Between 1995 and 1998 3,000,000 cubic metres of sand were dredged into Coolangatta Bay and Duranbah. The Tweed River sand by pass has been in place since March 2001 and since then it has pumped more than 3,528,386 m3 of sand altogether with the price of $3.00 to $6.20 per cubic metre. Since there hasn’t been any significant storms or cyclones in the last couple of years that could have moved the sand forward, an oversupply of sand now sticks in Kirra and Coolangatta Bay, which is a major reason why Kirra is not working any more. The width of the beach has increased drastically and the Little Groyne is completely covered by sand from the sand pumping. The oversupply of sand stops the waves from breaking properly and the shortening of 30 metres of the Big Groyne in 1995 did not contribute to better wave quality either.

The effects of losing Kirra ...

The death of Kirra has had far-reaching impacts on the environment, the surfing and diving community as well as to some extent on the surf tourism. Kirra used to be a popular diving area with a natural reef and vivid sea life, however, the reef has been buried over since the sand pumping started. Dive companies had to relocate and it is rather absurd that one of the few natural reefs on the Gold Coast is destroyed.
It is commonly assumed that Kirra’s loss is one of the reasons for overcrowding at Snapper Rocks and Burleigh Heads. Due to overcrowded breaks surfers are getting more and more frustrated, which adds fuel to the fire and increases surf rage even more. Obviously, this doesn’t foster the Gold Coast’s reputation and certainly doesn’t increase surf tourism either.

What can be done?

The sand pumping contract will be in place until 2020, yet Kirra is not a hopeless case as a university investigation has shown. There are a number of methods and possibilities that could bring back Kirra to its old glory. An extension of the groyne to its original length would be a possibility for example. This could create a barrier that blocks further sand of floating into the Bay. Also less and better monitored pumping of sand could increase the wave quality at Kirra point in the long run. With less or regulated pumping and dredging and with a strong cyclone season, Kirra could turn sooner or later into a similar point break to the one it used to be.
This is exactly the goal of local surfers, environmentalists, the diving and the fishing community, which all could not accept that a world famous break is buried under sand and formed the Coastal Alliance. This non-for-profit organisation has regular meetings and tries to increase public awareness about what has happened to Kirra and why it is important to change the current state which is that Kirra has no use to any of the communities. For more information contact:




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