I was just watching an interesting program on TV about “how the earth was made”. It explained how tsunamis were created by enormous underwater hillsides falling and pushing vast amounts of water to the surface, thus starting giant waves, or tsunamis. Mention was made of an earthquake in Chile in 1960, the tsunami of which travelled all the way across the Pacific Ocean and hit the Australian coast between Mackay in Queensland, and Byron Bay in New South Wales (Australia’s most easterly point) … the wave was about two metres high when it reached land. In 1960, I was with my parents at Sunshine Beach near Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. I was walking barefooted in the sand where waves finished their journey and receded … we used to burrow barefootted into the sand to feel for eugarie, a shellfish like a mussel. These made good fishing bait. Mum and Dad were about 50 yards from the water’s edge, and I heard Mum yell out, “Watch out for the big wave, Laurie!” But I wasn’t quick enough, and got thrown arse over turkey. Dad said later that all he saw was my feet sticking up out of the water every now and then for a period of about three minutes. When the wave had receded and I’d stopped trying involuntarily to drown myself, I sat on the sand, heaved up half of the Pacific Ocean, and began checking the contents of my pockets. Cigarettes OK (useta smoke in those days), lighter OK, handkerchief OK, wallet … uh-oh … no wallet! In it, I had about 60 quid (pounds, as it was called before we got decimal currency), or about $120 (probably equal to a couple of thousand dollars in today’s language), but it was no more. Wallet and money had disappeared. After that, for years Mum referred to the area as Sixty Quid Beach. Found it interesting to see in this program today about people being swept off their feet when the tsunami hit Queensland. At least I saw it from the inside!
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:26:43 +0000