Australia Weather News

Sand-pumping work to fix the Gold Coast's eroded beaches have been put on hold ahead of wild surf expected over the Easter long weekend.

A dredging barge was brought in to replenish more than 4 million cubic metres of sand that washed away from beaches during ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, but it was docked following wet conditions last weekend.

The 75-metre-long vessel had been pumping sand towards the affected beaches for about six days before operators decided it was unsafe to operate because of the large swells.

Mostly sunny conditions and warmer temperatures are forecast over the coming days but the Bureau of Meteorology has warned hazardous surf conditions are expected to develop from Friday and persist throughout the long weekend.

"This is going to be driven by a big, deep low-pressure system in the eastern Tasman Sea that's going to remain slow moving over the next few days," senior forecaster Felim Hannify said.

"It's going to pump in large and powerful south-easterly swells along the Queensland coast, so that does mean the potential for hazardous surf conditions and also some very dangerous rips around the Gold Coast and the south-east in general."

'Deceptive' swells

Mr Hannify said conditions could be dangerous even for experienced surfers.

"The swells will be deceptive given that the weather will be relatively settled and is likely to be very, very strong," Mr Hannify said.

"We're looking at swell heights of 3, even up to 4 metres off the coast and also combined with that will be long [swell] periods of up to 14 seconds.

"So a lot of energy, a lot of power in that.

"Even for the experienced surfers that may be a lot to handle."

Mayor Tom Tate said the dredging work would not resume until it was safe.

"It's got to come very close to where the sand is, which is near the waves, and if the swell's too high it's a safety issue, so we're watching it daily," he said.

Tom Murray from Griffith University's Coastal and Marine Research Centre said the rough surf conditions were unlikely to cause more damage or undo the restoration work already completed.

"We wouldn't expect to see anything too catastrophic because the beach is very, very eroded at the moment," he said.

"It's just on the council to continue doing what they're doing for the next few months as we are still in a relatively wavy season for the next month or so."

Easter tourist boom

Meanwhile the city's tourism operators are looking forward to bumper crowds across the long weekend.

More than 200,000 people are expected to visit the Gold Coast over the 10 days and more than 20,000 are due on Good Friday alone.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is hoping to recoup some of the losses experienced during ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

"It was significant in terms of the impact, obviously, the heavy rain and the high winds with the sanctuary, being such a beautiful, forested site, we saw over 30 sizeable gum trees come down throughout the site," general manager Travis Couch said.

"Thankfully, the impacts to our wildlife and animal habitats were really limited, so we're really fortunate in that space.

"But it was certainly a challenging period for us, without doubt, having to close nine days."