After weeks and weeks of less than perfect weather, it is so wonderful to finally see days on end of nothing but the sun! The weather has cooled down dramatically and everything is looking pristine and sparkly.

I paid a visit to Kirra Point Lookout the other day, knowing I had the perfect weather for taking some great photos of the ocean.

From the lookout to the north is Kirra Beach, usually jammed packed full of surfers. Kirra Beach is world-famous for its surfing conditions. In fact, it was at Kirra that the second Surf Life Saving Club was established in Queenland, at a meeting held on January 7th 1916, with the Coolangatta Surf Life Saving Club, established in 1911 being the oldest in the state.

As you can see here, Kirra Beach was almost deserted. Perhaps the surfing conditions were not as they should be, even on the sunniest of days…

Coolangatta Beach too, to the south of the lookout, was all but deserted.

I loved the blueness of the sky as a backdrop for this white apartment building in Coolangatta.

Over the last twenty-five to thirty years a number of older style beachside apartment buildings have been demolished, in favour of these multi-story apartment buildings and holiday units.

A monument of a large iron eagle, with the appearance of it soaring through the air towards the ocean, has been erected at Kirra Point Lookout. Whilst it is very interesting to see the iron eagle, I don’t know the significance of it.

I wonder if there is a significance, or whether someone simply liked the idea?…I’ll keep asking around.

Whilst I stood at Kirra Point Lookout, clicking away in this direction and that with my camera, I spotted an old church, nestled beside some other buildings, up on a hill in the distance at Coolangatta.

It started me thinking and casting my mind back to the Tweed Heads and Coolangatta area that I first knew, back in the days before the new apartment buildings and holiday lets were constructed.

How many old buildings remain in the area?

The weatherboard holiday lets along the beach – gone, and replaced with highrise buildings.

The row of shops containing two cinemas – gone, and replaced with a multi-level shopping centre, office space and one new cinema.

An old roller skating rink ~ gone, and replaced by a car park.

The original lighthouse at Point Danger ~ gone, and replaced by the Captain Cook Memorial Lighthouse.

I have decided that, by and large, Australians are an unsentimental (is that a word?) race of people and prefer to re-built rather than refurbish and extend!

Anyway, yesterday I took myself off to the old church on the hill and took a number of photos. I found another church of a similar vintage just around the corner also, but have yet to find any other old buildings in this area!

Next post, I’ll share with you my two old churches, (and any other old buildings I may come across in the meantime, if they exist!)