David,
We had winds up to 130 kph which uprooted trees all along the coastline, tore branches off trees, blew down fences and generally caused havoc. There was one house which had its roof blown off but, remarkably, there was not a great deal of property damage. We registered over 220 mm of rain in a week, but other areas had LOTS more, exceeding 500 mm in some places. The beaches did not fare so well, with massive amounts of sand being washed away, and the frontal dunes were badly eroded. The so called Wave Rider buoy, moored 4 nautical miles off Lennox Head and which transmits wave heights to the Coast Guard tower, measured a maximum wave height of 14 metres. Waves on the beaches were up to 8 metres high.
The photo shows Shelley Beach, Ballina after the storms. The sand dunes used to slope gently down to the sandy beach, but now there is very little sand, just exposed rocks. The sand will eventually return, but it will take several years for the beaches to recover.
Peter.