Main Beach Queensland, is a virtual island at the northern tip of the Gold Coast, Australia's holiday playground.

It is well known for its high-rise apartment blocks and the upmarket restaurants and boutiques that line its high street, Tedder Avenue. Yet once you venture to its fringes, to the golden sands of its beaches to the east and tranquility of MacIntosh Island to the south, to the bustling Broadwater to the west and the rejuvenated Spit to its north, you will be struck by its natural beauty.

This concise book explores and celebrates the natural rhythms of Main Beach, of the creatures that pass through and the ones here all year round, of the migrating sand and beach habitat, of the relentless ocean waves and the bush life.

John Tilston has over 25 years' experience writing for leading financial publications reporting on economies and stock markets from close quarters. He has worked as Melbourne Bureau Chief for the Australian Financial Review; Economics Editor for Business Day; and London-based Economics News Editor for Dow Jones Newswires. He has contributed to New York's Business Week; the London-based Investors' Chronicle; the Financial Mail in Johannesburg; The Sunday Times; and Finance Week.

He is the author of four books, most recently: NIMBY! Aligning regional economic development practice to the realities of the 21st Century. Others are Meanjin to Brisvegas: Brisbane's journey from colonial backwater to new world city; How to explain why you're vegetarian to you dinner guests (published in Japan, 2004); and a work of historical fiction, Churchill's Mole Hunt (novel) (2006)