An Australian Beach

An Australian Beach: Currumbin

The Australian coast is blessed with some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Thousands of kilometers of sand and waves. It is not hard to find a deserted, beguiling stretch of beach where a person can become one with the age-old duality of land and sea.

Surely humans have lived in such places for millions of years, since before we were fully human. And perhaps this is why we feel so good being in such places. They humanise us, remind us what it is to be a human being without the trappings and timetables of modern life.

Big Nature, like this, speaks to us, but not in words. In the age-old language of instinct. It rejuvenates and inspires us. The clear cool water calls to us, and refreshes after the bright dryness of the sand. This is a place of stark dualities; wet and dry, hot and cold, bright and dark, tumult and peace.

The curling breakers reveal clear depths where sometimes dolphins swim. Such a thrill to see them, these other-worldly creatures. I recall David Attenborough saying that dolphins were once land-dwelling mammals from the same family as deer that went to live in the ocean about 50 million years ago, in the Eocine Era.

The beach seen above is at Currumbin, on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. It is about 20 kilometers South of Surfer's Paradise (below), one of the most developed beachside cities in the world. Surfer's Paradise has a skyline to rival New York's Manhattan. It boasts the world's tallest residential tower, Q1.

Is it unkind to say that from a distance, Surfer's Paradise looks like a city built by termites? Perhaps. I enjoy staying in those luxury apartments and living large. But when I am swimming in the ocean at Currumbin, I look at Surfer's Paradise in the distance, and realise this is where I would rather be, far from the madding crowd with only the sand and waves for company.

After all, it was in this place, as a small child on family holidays I first experienced the pleasures of the Beach.

Return to David Tuffley's Griffith website. | Email David Tuffley