Looking back 70 years ago, I see what nature has done to the sand dunes between Manning Point, formerly Brighton, and Farquhar Park and also the inlet into the Manning River. In the 1940s the dunes between Beach Road and Farquhar Park had many rabbit warrens, very common in those days, but no damage was done to the dune.
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Horse and slide was the only transport to patrol the beaches to gather timber, and deliver aviation spirit in 44 gallon drums and bags of coal that came ashore off cargo ships.
There have been very few cyclones in the last 10 years but all sand dunes have washed away and may have shifted the sand into the river entrance.
As a regular visitor to the Farquhar Inlet to fish, on October 1, 2017 I found it had closed at low tide so our four wheel drive vehicle travelled half way across Charlie’s Island over a desert of sand.
What Mother Nature has done to the south passage of the Manning has resulted in a desert of sand from Charlie’s Island to Mudbishop’s old joint and all channels that led to the inlet no longer exist.
Maybe a large flood will open it again.
It may be Mother Nature’s way of saying we only need one entrance to the river. As it is now, Mitchells Island is no longer an island as it has joined Old Bar beach dunes.