Redhead Surf Life Saving Club president David McCullum estimates "around eight feet of sand" has been lost from parts of Redhead beach.

"It's all exposed rocks in front of the club so we can't get our vehicles down to the beach," Mr McCullum said.

"There was a massive wave that hit the club damaging some doors and wiping out a lot of stuff from the kiosk but the biggest thing is the loss of so much sand.

"It will come back in the eight to 12 months but we really need a solution now."

A lifelong Redhead resident, Mr McCullum said the club also lost their disability ramp to the beach, however, would have been "a lot worse off" if it wasn't for the breakwater payed for largely by Jeff McCloy in the 1990s.

Cooks Hill Life Saving and Surf Club director of administration Adrian Miles was raised in Merewether and has been a member of the surf club for over 20 years.

He said the size of Saturday's waves and level of subsequent erosion is like nothing he has seen at Bar Beach before.

"The waves were breaking hundreds of metres out. I haven't seen sand gouged away so badly before now," he said.

"It's exposed rocks all along the beach and taken sand from under our concrete stairs leaving them hanging."

Mr Miles said the club has pictures off the 1974 "Sygna Storm" aftermath, which is the only event he can think of comparable to the weekend's erosion.

The 46-year-old said the near five metre swell reported on Saturday had a severe impact on the old club house.

"The deck out the front of the old surf club is now completely gone. It was last seen cartwheeling its way down to Dixon Park," Mr Miles said.

"The waves also blasted the door behind the deck off its hinges and ripped the solid concrete ramp off the side of the building."

Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle Dr Hannah Power said the waves experienced on Saturday are rare, occurring "once in a thousand observations".

"The coastline takes a really long time to recover from big erosion events like this," Dr Power said.

Warning that east coast lows are likely to become more severe, Dr Power said erosion caused by large tides makes coastal communities more vulnerable.

"Due to global warming we are seeing east coast lows more frequently in warmer months and when they come they are more severe," she said.

"We've had a series of events like this recently and our coastline just hasn't had the time to recover."

With long-term erosion troubles, Stockton again saw the loss of sand from its beach and coastline over the weekend.

Ian Taggart is a Stockton resident and part of a team who last year published a research paper looking at a century of erosion in the area.

He said the weekend's weather is a "reminder that the beach is fragile" and called for the fast-tracking of sand nourishment in Stockton.

"The damage has just been continued shoreline recession," he said. "The constant erosion means the barrier between us and large tidal events like this is getting smaller and that leads to water flooding the streets as we saw on the weekend."

A spokesperson said the City of Newcastle is in the process of finalising its Coastal Management Program (CMP) for Newcastle's Southern beaches.

"There is still significant work to be done before mass sand is returned to Stockton Beach including obtaining the necessary approvals for offshore sand mining, something that has never previously been permitted," the spokesperson said.

"City of Newcastle looks to the State Government to lead us on this path towards obtaining mass sand nourishment."

IN THE NEWS:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: