In the November 2020 2515 issue, Dr Rip gave an explanation about the moving sands on our beaches in the recent stormy weather.

Where we live at Sharkey’s Beach we recently saw the loss of a lot of sand on our beach, particularly at the southern end of the beach, exposing the rock platforms.

Walking our dog on the beach every day we also saw some interesting ‘rock holes’ exposed with the loss of the sand and wondered about their story.

We reached out to a friend, an Austi local, a geologist now living overseas. He looked at these photos and gave the following explanation: “These are drop stones. Believe it or not, apparently during the glaciation period ice sheets covered many areas. As the ice melted, stones stuck in the ice dropped to the sea or lake floor and got stuck in the mud. Over time the stones dissolved and the hole was left.

"Some rocks became loose over time and moved around over long periods of time to make deeper and perfectly round holes. There are also some at Sandon Point where the rounded boulders are still in place. These at Sharkey are from the Permian period, some 160 million years ago.”  

– Lucy Arundell, a letter via email