The Bar, and When Not to Cross It

Graeme Lund · 2 August 2026

The Caloundra bar moves. That sentence is the whole article, but it is worth the rest of the words.

It Is Not Where It Was

Sand bars at passage entrances shift with weather and swell, sometimes substantially within a season. The channel that was safe last summer may not exist now, and the mark somebody gave you three years ago is worth nothing.

This is not a bar to learn on and it is not a bar to cross on somebody else's information. Local knowledge here means current knowledge, not knowledge acquired locally at some point in the past.

The Conditions That Catch People

A run-out tide against an incoming swell is the combination that stands the water up, and it is what turns a crossing that looked fine from the ramp into one that is not fine at all halfway through.

Wind against tide does a milder version of the same thing. The bar can be flat at dawn and unrecognisable by ten.

Being Sensible

Watch it before you commit. Sit off and give it a set or two, because a bar that is breaking intermittently will look calm for exactly as long as it takes to talk yourself into it.

Log on and log off. If it looks marginal it is marginal, and the passage fishes perfectly well without going anywhere near the entrance.