Mogareeka resident of 51 years, Nancy Hinde, remembers the first structure to appear one day by the Bega River mouth.

“I remember people kept adding to it, and it ended up with lots of rooms almost like an apartment block,” she said with a laugh.

Despite their common occurrence Ms Hinde is yet to see anyone actually building the structures.

“Our house looks down over the sand and I’ve never seen anyone building one, maybe they do it at night,” she said.

“Maybe it’s the fisherman or the board riders, we get a lot of fisherman down here but it’s probably kids having fun building tipis.

“I think it’s amazing it has become a feature.”

Fellow Mogareeka resident Jo Jamieson has witnessed the structures being built by families, mostly over the summer season.

“You can see it’s a family thing together to do at the beach,” she said.

“families get together and bond over the activity.

“I think they’re fantastic.”

Ms Jamieson said the structures are constantly evolving.

“They come and they go,” she said.

“Some people add to them and sometimes they get pushed down.”

The 24-year Mogareeka resident said many structures often end up burnt, left as ash on the sand.

“They inevitably all get burnt down at some point,” she said.

Another phenomena of the area is the stacking of pebbles in the style of North American stone landmark inuksuks.

“I remember once somebody knocked them all down and they were all rebuilt,” Ms Hinde said.

“They began a long time ago now, I used to love walking up through the forest every morning and walking past them.”