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124 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Fus., 1902. 
At the spot shown in the fourth picture enormous trees have been buried. 
About two years ago, during a tremendous south-easterly gale, the sea washed 
away the sand and left an immense hole, having an area of a couple of acres. 
Here could be seen trunks of large trees which had been buried for an 
unknown period. Shortly afterwards the hole was filled up by the sand, which 
encroached on the dune, as here depicted, and buried the trees seen in the 
foreground in the fifth picture. Fig. 6 illustrates the surface of the dune 
with patches of marrem-grass, which are alternately buried and exposed, whilst 
in Fig 7. may be seen the littoral dune, in rear of which is a second, and the 
third in the background is heavily timbered, but is being encroached upon not 
only by the sand, but also by the sea, which threatens to break through the 
dunes and roll into Nerang Creek, which is shown in Fig. 8. The bank of 
the creek here depicted is merely the third dune. The sea has broken through 
the littoral dunes, and efforts are being made by the Port authorities to prevent 
its incursion at a spot a little beyond the scrub on the left, by means of Secies 
lashed to the bank. The nearness of the catastrophe may be deduced from 
Fig. 9, which shows the high-water mark on the seaside and the creek in the 
background. 
Coming into the township of Southport, the encroachments of the sand 
are very marked. For instance, trees planted on the street side, and protected 
by posts and palings, have been completely buried and killed, as shown im 
Figs. 10 and 11, whilst the process is still in progress in Fig. 12. The 
two next illustrations show the intrusion of the sand on the sea-wall, which is 
covered for several hundred yards, and on the approach to the jetty, where 
men are daily employed in shovelling away the sand which has already covered 
the top of the handrail. 
Fig. 15 gives a very vivid idea of the enormous quantities of sand blown on 
shore. The timber structure uncovered constituted an attempt to preserve the 
foreshore, and arrest the progress of the sand. The concrete structure on the 
left is the new sea-wall in process of erection. The dune on the right will show 
to what a depth the log wall was buried. 
Finally, Figs. 16 and 17 are illustrative of the flow of the sand over the main 
street, and even across it to the grassed and wooded dunes beyond. 
Haying thus shown the irresistible advance of the dunes, the question next 
arises : How is it to be prevented ? I need not here detail what has been done in 
Europe and in America, when thousands of pounds have been expended, notabl 
in France and Holland, to check the advance of the enormous sand-dunes, whic 
have overwhelmed whole villages and fields. Space will not admit of an account 
of this work. Suffice it to say that the work has been carried out successfully 
and eventually with profit to the State. 
It is generally supposed that sea-sand is the most barren of all 
soils. Probably, if sea-sand were carefully washed and burnt, it would 
be so, but as it is constituted, it contains a considerable quantity of plant 
food, such as lime, and an intermixture of humus from sea-weed, &c. This 
being so, we have a starting point from which to proceed to arresting the 
inland movement of the dune. The littoral dune affords very little scope for 
the forester’s art. Nature shows clearly that nothing in the way of tree- 
planting is likely to succeed on the white shifting hill facing the sea. But it 18 
by the help of this dune that we are enabled to arrest the progress of the others: 
All along our coasts we see that marrem-grass and the Ipomea thrive 
Wherever these are growing thickly, the sand is fixed. Now, if the littoral 
dune is bare of any binding grass, the sand will drive off its summit an! 
gradually advance inland, but once fix the sand of this dune, and, provided that — 
its height is from 30 to 40 feet, a protection is afforded for operations on the 
second, and here the work of tree-planting should be done. What trees t? 
plant would be matter for experiment, but the Cluster Pine (Pinus pinaster): 
the Cypress Pine, and some other varieties would be eminently suitable, the 
latter being indigenous. If young plants of these or their seeds, preferabl 
the latter, were set under the lee of the littoral dune, they would make rap} 
growth, and in the course of a few years would form a source of income to thé 
