Most of the area behind the dunes was omitted from the original 1872 town survey, because it was regarded as unsuitable for development. However, it eventually was subdivided in 1881 and the blocks were soon taken up. Pressure on the dunes intensified when Rockhampton was connected to Yeppoon by rail in 1909 and daytime bathing became legal in Livingstone Shire, the local government area. Growing numbers of holiday makers visited the beach, and as there was no reserved land in Yeppoon for camping until 1914, they tended to erect their tents in the dunes out of the wind: by 1914 camping in the dunes had become more or less a tradition, and the gazetting of recreational reserves did little to discourage camping in the dunes. Rough tracks and pathways from town streets through the dunes to the beach began to disturb the dune cover and create sand drifts. Sand shifted across roads and damned drains causing minor flooding during rain, and for the next fifty years managing encroaching sand, not beach erosion,
was a principle occupation of the shire road gangs.

This photograph taken in about 1900 shows a huge sand drift crossing what is now Anzac Parade towards Hill Street.