Cronulla Beach

Looking south from Green Hills towards Cronulla proper.

Looking from Monterey to the city

Once the beachfront along the Grand Parade through Brighton-le-Sands, Monterey and Ramsgate was high sand dunes, which regularly drifted across the road. Nowadays they are lower, and stabilised with plantings of native vegetation.

Photo from Rockdale its beginning and development by Philip Geeves and James Jervis, rev 1986, published by Rockdale Municipal Council.

Kurnell sand dunes

When I was a kid, we used to come to these sand dunes and slide down them. Sometimes my son's school cricket team goes there to train by running up and down them.

Now they are far less extensive than they were then. They once reached a height of 40m above sea level, and 90m below. Originally covered by timber, they were cleared, and became unstable. They were mined between 1930 and 1990. In 2003 they were placed on the State Heritage Register.

Several Australian movies were filmed amongst the Kurnell sand dunes, including Forty Thousand Horsemen, The Rats of Tobruk, Phar Lap, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Read more about the dunes here. And about sand mining here.