Dog rescued from sea foam on Australian beach as storms batter east coast

Cyclonic conditions generate huge seas along New South Wales and Queensland shorelines

A dog has been rescued from sea foam churned up along Australia’s east coast, as storms batter the country.

The dog, called ‘Hazel’, was rescued live on TV as a camera crew was filming the adverse weather conditions in Australia.

Cyclonic conditions generated huge seas along the New South Wales and Queensland shorelines, washing away some beaches. Destructive winds and rain also caused widespread flooding.

Byron Bay, a popular tourist destination in northern NSW all but disappeared, Byron Mayor Simon Richardson said. 

Video from the area showed vast amounts of sea foam, with residents rescuing a pet dog from the beach live on TV after it became lost in a thick blanket of churned up seawater and algae.

Several people were shown rushing to find the dog, who was eventually reunited with her owner after being rescued from the foam.

“Right now around Byron, we've got some severe weather, massive swells, we're watching our beach disappear,” Mr Richardson said.

Television news footage also showed a concrete walkway along the beach collapsing into the sea. Eight metre-high waves were reported at Byron Bay where the beach was stripped of sand.

“What we've got here is yet another event. An extreme weather event coming on the back of climate change that our community's dealing with. It's about the fourth or fifth major event in the last couple of years.”

The wet conditions contrast with the fierce bushfires that ravaged world heritage listed Fraser Island in Queensland state in recent weeks. On Monday, fire evacuation points on Fraser Island were underwater due to high tides and huge waves.

This handout picture taken on November 29, 2020 and released by the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services shows an aerial view of bushfires on Fraser Island, (QUEENSLAND FIRE AND EMERGENCY SE)

The heavy band of rain and wild winds, generated by an intense low pressure system off the southern Queensland coast, battered the heavily-populated border regions between NSW and Queensland for the third day bringing more than 700 millimetres of rain in some places over 48 hours.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warned coastal erosion, hazardous rain and huge waves off the coast would continue on Monday and urged motorists to stay off the roads.

Australia is expecting a wetter than usual summer this year due to the La Niña weather phenomenon, typically associated with greater rainfall and more tropical cyclones, though a major heat wave sweltered the east just weeks ago.

“Major coastal erosion is ongoing along numerous beaches in northeast (NSW) and southeast Queensland as spring tides combined with large waves and gale force easterly winds eat away sand from beaches,” BoM meteorologist Dean Narramore said.