Quick sand

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Quick sand

Postby GPSGuided » Tue 13 Jun, 2017 8:36 am

Whilst reading another trip report thread, I noted a report of quicksand in a stream and to watch out for. I was surprised.

Are there quicksand in Australia? Apart from the 'slow mud' of Tassie, do we have those dangerous quicksand areas here on Oz? Anyone know?
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Re: Quick sand

Postby Turfa » Tue 13 Jun, 2017 12:02 pm

Well, not like in the movies, but I do remember at least a couple of times when canyoning in the Blue Mountains stepping into what looked like a sandy bottom section of creek only about shin deep and sank in up to mid thigh. Not really hard to get out of, but I was somewhat concerned about leaving a Volley behind!
Each time it was where the creek flowed down a small drop. I suspect some of the water was flowing down behind the rocks and was welling up under the sand.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby GPSGuided » Tue 13 Jun, 2017 1:34 pm

Thanks.

Ok, similar to the beach at locations. Understandable for the common mechanism. Just wondered if there are those 'real' quicksand patches as for what's seen in movies and documentaries where lives could be lost.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby puredingo » Tue 13 Jun, 2017 3:49 pm

Last time is was on the Nattai I struck some pretty serious quicksand. It was just after those heavy rains that flooded and changed the rivers look considerable (There's a thread on here about it somewhere)... I hopped off a rock onto, what I thought was, A sand bank and KAPLONK!, sunk up to my pack in boggy, thick, wet sand. Had I not had my pack on I'm sure I would of went deeper and just imagine if there was a foot of water flowing over the bank?...Drowned for sure.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby madmacca » Tue 13 Jun, 2017 3:55 pm

GPSGuided wrote:Whilst reading another trip report thread, I noted a report of quicksand in a stream and to watch out for. I was surprised.

Are there quicksand in Australia? Apart from the 'slow mud' of Tassie, do we have those dangerous quicksand areas here on Oz? Anyone know?


I grew up on a farm which had some swampy areas and quickmud. When I was about 5 or 6, my father took us down there, with a pole about 6 foot long, and we all sized ourselves up against it, and agreed it was taller than we were. He then stood on the side of the soft area, and pushed the full length of the pole into the mud single handed, then told us "Never go near here again". Lesson learned.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby GPSGuided » Tue 13 Jun, 2017 4:48 pm

Thanks guys for the experiences. So they do exist even on a dry continent here.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby ribuck » Tue 13 Jun, 2017 6:11 pm

Sand is heavier than water, so fortunately quicksand is always survivable (because the human body floats better in quicksand than it does in water). If you step onto quicksand and find yourself deep in it, lean the rest of your body forward (to increase your surface area on the sand). Push your arms and hands against the sand and (slowly) bring your legs up. As your legs start to rise, move the rest of your body forward so that you have less weight on your legs, and they will start to rise more quickly. If your hands are sinking into the sand, use a sort-of slow-motion crawl (a bit like the swimming stroke), alternating hands, and you will continue to lift yourself out.

Of course, most Aussie quicksand is very much easier to get out of than that.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby north-north-west » Tue 13 Jun, 2017 7:01 pm

There are plenty of,beaches around the country where driving is a potentially risky business due to patches of quicksand.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby cams » Thu 15 Jun, 2017 9:20 am

I haven't looked in a while, but I think I remember seeing on maps of Cooloola NP areas between the Noosa River and the sea marked with areas of quicksand. Either that or I just made that up...
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Re: Quick sand

Postby GPSGuided » Thu 15 Jun, 2017 10:04 am

So it sounds like that there aren't too many areas of quicksand here. Guess it could have been because of the impressionable youth and watching all those adventure movies from the early B&W/colour days, it left fear and a sense of prevalence of quicksand in the depth of Africa and Sth America. Maybe the prevalence isn't that great even in those parts of the world too. It's those movies that exaggerated... :roll:
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Re: Quick sand

Postby Orion » Thu 15 Jun, 2017 12:07 pm

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Re: Quick sand

Postby GPSGuided » Thu 15 Jun, 2017 1:33 pm

A lot of hard work while the Labrador just walked around... LOL
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Re: Quick sand

Postby Son of a Beach » Thu 15 Jun, 2017 3:11 pm

There is some nasty quick mud in the flat part of Explorer Creek between Lake Explorer and where the creek starts flowing downhill over rocks. In fact, I reckon much of Explorer Lake is the same.

The mud is not just sludgy, but genuinely quick, and very deep in some places.

My mate walked in at a decent pace and shot down to his waist instantly and he reckons his feet still didn't find anything solid. He only stopped going down because he then overbalanced and fell forwards. Thankfully, he was close enough to the far bank to pull himself out, but he was a little unsettled for a while afterwards. I missed the fun, because I thought it looked like a bad place to cross and had back-tracked to where there were rocks.

Some parts of the Tamar River's upper reaches are like that too. I know of one person that fell off his boat, got stuck deep in the mud and drowned. There may have been other factors involved (maybe alcohol - don't know).

Not sand in either case though.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby Neo » Fri 16 Jun, 2017 5:15 pm

Something about quicksand on mythbusters atm, 7mate
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Re: Quick sand

Postby awmross » Thu 22 Jun, 2017 6:01 pm

I always thought quicksand was a myth from old Hollywood movies set in Egypt and Africa, until I actually experienced quicksand myself in the Royal National Park at Big Marley. There is a creek that runs out from the lagoon, past the sand dunes and into the sea at the north end of the beach. I was walking down from the dunes and decided to take a shortcut across the creek, about 100m inland from where the coast walk crosses the creek. The water was only ankle deep, and the creek was only 10 metres wide or so. I took a few steps into the water; then, with the next step my whole body sank up to the hip into the sand. I was completely alone and for those first seconds of panic I even wondered if I might die.

I remembered things I had read about quicksand and tried to spread my weight across the surface by leaning forward and spreading my hands and arms out wide. Gradually I sort of swam / dragged myself across the surface toward the other side of the creek. The quicksand is very viscous and has a strong 'suction' effect on your legs, as you try to pull them out; it is like being submerged in honey. I managed to get onto some more solid sand and lay sprawled across this little 'island' of unsubmerged sand, surrounded on all sides by more ankle deep water. The fear I felt of continuing further across the wet sand was palpable.

The most frightening thing about quicksand is it breaks one of the constants of life; that the ground we walk on is solid and will always support our weight. No one expects to step into their kitchen and sink into the floor. When it happens it takes you completely by surprise. It is like a hallucinogenic nightmare.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby GPSGuided » Thu 22 Jun, 2017 6:17 pm

Thanks for the tale and the shared 'education' through old Hollywood movies. Know Marley and wouldn't have expected it either.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby Biggles » Mon 24 Jul, 2017 12:34 pm

GPSGuided wrote:Whilst reading another trip report thread, I noted a report of quicksand in a stream and to watch out for. I was surprised.

Are there quicksand in Australia? Apart from the 'slow mud' of Tassie, do we have those dangerous quicksand areas here on Oz? Anyone know?



Yes. The west coast of Tasmania, in particular the coast north of the heads of Pieman River, has shifting quicksand. It varies with tidal movements and soaks. Often the known presence of quicksand comes up as a red warning in descriptive walks on the Tarkine coast e.g. in the book Tarkine Trails (pub. Bob Brown Foundation). Its appearance is a akin to baby chunder from a short distance and may have the appearance of moving. A decade ago we encountered quicksand on Fraser Island and that was one of the first reports of it.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby GPSGuided » Mon 24 Jul, 2017 4:04 pm

So it's established that Australia is no different and can have quicksand for the same geographical reasons. A follow up question would be, can these quicksand areas be read in advance? Special features? Guess caution and testing are warranted.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby Biggles » Tue 25 Jul, 2017 1:09 pm

GPSGuided wrote:So it's established that Australia is no different and can have quicksand for the same geographical reasons. A follow up question would be, can these quicksand areas be read in advance? Special features? Guess caution and testing are warranted.


One tell-tale sign of quicksand, from personal experience, is that is moves in a sliding fashion, especially on sloping shorelines and can 'wrinkle'. It's a bit late to blithely step into the glug loaded down with a 25kg pack and assume everything will be honky-tonk — it will not be!! If the surface looks odd, use a trekking pole to probe it.
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Re: Quick sand

Postby wildwanderer » Tue 25 Jul, 2017 3:30 pm

So if you are wearing a 15 Kg+ pack and sink down to your hips...

Is leaning forward and attempting to sandcrawl likely to see you pushed under by the weight of the pack ? Or would you still likely keep most of your upper body above the sinking sand ?

or what about leaning backward and letting the pack sink in a bit while your body is pushed upwards. Once enough of you is above the sand, then wriggle out of the pack, flip over ( and sand crawl out) . Of course then you need to retrieve your pack..
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Re: Quick sand

Postby ribuck » Tue 25 Jul, 2017 5:36 pm

In that situation I would unclip my pack, roll it off my back to the side, and use the pack to haul myself out. A pack is much more buoyant (less mass per litre) than a person.

If I couldn't unclip the pack for any reason, then I would probably lean backward or sideways, just to be sure that the weight of the pack didn't push my face into the quicksand.

In my experience (admittedly limited), doing ANYTHING other than panicking/wiggling works fine.
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