The dunes

South Stradbroke Island is flanked by spectacular dunes along its eastern shore. That may not seem surprising–it's a sand island, after all–but we're very lucky that they're still there.

Although sand dunes are familiar to most Australians, few of us take the time to understand or enjoy them. For most of us, the dunes are just something to run across on our way to the beach and the ocean. And the faster we run, the more damage we do.

Dunes are very fragile; they're basically just big piles of sand. People and other wildlife can change the shape of a dune just by walking on it. Any change of shape alters the way wind moves sand around and over the dune, which re - shapes it again, and so on. But sand dunes can be stabilised by vegetation or local geography. If there is no vegetation–as in a desert–then the dunes move constantly.