Australia facing more wild weather during their summer

Swimmers and surfers are being told to stay away from the water due to the dangerous conditions

Parts of eastern Australia, including Brisbane and the Gold Coast have experienced wild weather this week, including torrential rain and unusually high tides.

A 1000km stretch of the east coast has been hit with huge storms which has caused power cuts across more than 2000 homes.

Emergency services have been on hand to help with more that 700 calls.

People are being told to stay away from the beaches and those stranded in flood waters have been helped to safety.

It has been reported that waves have washed away what was left of a beach in Byron Bay - a popular holiday spot.

Meteorologists, people who study weather, have said that this Australian summer is being impacted by a weather pattern called La Niña..

La Niña causes the water in the Pacific Ocean to cool and the Atlantic Ocean to get warmer. This causes more flooding and cyclones in eastern and northern parts of Australia.

Bushfires damaged much of Fraser Island's dry bush earlier this month

Severe weather warnings are in place for huge coastal areas, with some parts already having received over 40cm of rain within 24 hours.

The experts believe the rainfall is expected to ease late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Extreme weather is becoming increasingly common in Australia - just a week ago, major bushfires damaged half of the dry bush on Fraser Island - a Unesco-listed World Heritage site.