Last week Bronte locals received a dramatic interruption to an otherwise quiet, rain-soaked Friday morning. Massive slabs of sandstone peeled away from a beachside cliff, taking out a regularly used stairwell in the process. It was akin to a two-storey apartment block collapsing as tons of broken rocks and rubble tumbled onto a concrete stormwater drain (cracking a section) and the beach. Thankfully no one was injured but had it been a summer’s day there would likely have been people sunbaking at the cliff’s base.
One of the local Life Guards, Dean Gladstone, was at home when someone sent him a photo of the recently collapsed cliff. Dean raced down and interviewed several people on location (see Insta clip below). “Just as I my feet hit the water, I heard the loudest crack of my life,” commented one relived swimmer in Dean’s post.
Dean concedes the geological disruption would have taken lives if it had been a summer’s day, however, there was also a funny side to the first-hand accounts. “One of the local park staff, Louie, was on the toilet when he heard this big thud,” explains Deano with a chuckle.
For those not familiar with it, Bronte is two beaches south of Bondi and was the childhood stomping ground of WSL commissioner Jesse Miley–Dyer and CT super-coach Tom Whittaker.
Several wild theories were tossed around about the cause of the cliff’s collapse – nearby construction sites, shifting fault lines and Russian earthquakes were all mentioned – but several days of heavy rain coupled with thousands of years of wind and wave erosion seem to be the most likely cause. “I guess Council will have to try and check the whole area,” suggested Dean. “It does hold a lot of water, all that area – I don’t know about the drainage – it’s a fascinating situation.”
Local surf photographer, Bill Morris, had only recently been shooting from the base of the cliff and couldn’t help but wonder what might have been. “… The other day I was directly under it and felt a little uneasy – Premonition?” he wrote in an Instagram post.
Like much of the east coast, Bronte is currently being battered by a heaving east swell. The swells will likely reach the edges of the rock-spill, but only time will tell if nature’s beach reno’ will have any impact on the waves.
