Aboriginal site, shifting sands

The speeed with which things can change at a beach is truly phenomenal.

The thousands of small stones on the sand at the south end of Sandy just a few days ago have mostly disappeared as the sands shift both underwater and above, due to waves and wind.

It's only a few days since I wandered over the southern sand dune on the track to Emerald Beach, but since then there are signs of work by the council. No complaints here: they've covered over with tons of sand the old flaking site as used by the local indigenous tribe in years gone by.

This is where the people would bring back smooth, rounded stones from the rocks and make implements of various kinds. For once I think it a good idea that the effects of Nature have been modified by human intervention, because that section of the beach is something of a wind tunnel and the old implements and flakes were exposed to idiots such as I who can pilfer them. The reason I was there today was to return some tools that I had brought home to take a closer look at, I confess. I shouldn't have done it, so I gave them back to the shifting sands, and the ancestors, where they belong.

The recent work done by council looks like it might have been done centuries ago, for in just a matter of days the dune sands have made it their own. Once again, I didn't want to come home from my flaneur on Sandy Beach, as there is nowhere I know that is more fun to play than on the feet-burning white dunes on the walk to Emerald Beach, where just for a while you can run and climb and feel like Lawrence of Arabia.

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)