THE main beach at Fingal Head has disappeared into the ocean, but a long-time local said it was nothing to worry about.

Fingal Head Rovers Surf Life Saving Club member Rex Budd has patrolled the main beach at Fingal for 35 years and said the beach erosion was significant but was a regular cycle for the beach.

“There are two sandbanks off the coast that will start filling the beach again,” Mr Budd said.

“There has been a lot of sand shifted, but from my experience it’s not the same as what happened at Kingscliff,” he said.

Sand at Kingscliff Beach was washed away in April leaving only a rock wall.

Tweed Shire Council attempted to dredge sand, erect fences and plant vegetation on dunes to reduce erosion at Kingscliff but it failed.

Mr Budd said the latest high tide at Fingal Head didn’t move much sand because the offshore sandbanks were weakening the waves.

“We have about a two, two and a half metre drop in the emergency access road to the beach, but we can still access the beach from another point,” he said.

Fingal Head Dunecare president Kay Bolton said people were worried about the erosion on the beach because of what happened at Kingscliff.

“It’s probably four or five metres further back than the erosion that we (Fingal Head) had in May 2009,” she said.

“You can’t really do anything about it but we plant dune vegetation and keep planting.”