This infrastructure took a terrible battering between April 1928 and February 1931 when three tropical cyclones passed the coast, one curving back, effectively striking twice. The February 1931 cyclone produced a tremendous sea that swept away all the bathing boxes, shelter sheds, and the life-saving clubhouse, and left debris spread over 50 square metres of beach.

In the depths of the great depression the shire was reluctant to take on any additional debt, and decided to hand over the redevelopment of the foreshore to private enterprise. Yeppoon Beach Improvements Ltd., build and owned most of the structures you see in the photo above of a crowd gathered around a plane. The centre-piece of the development was the Beach Café constructed on substantial stone and brick foundations, flanked by private and public dressing rooms, enclosed sun baking areas, hot and cold showers, and shade pavilions – a virtual ‘paradise for the pleasure seeker’, as a promotional pamphlet put it.