Queensland towie records frantic escape from Inskip sinkhole

A Queensland tow truck driver's skills and composure were really tested when a massive sinkhole began to open up beneath his camp spot on Saturday night.

Jason Wotherspoon was in bed when the sinkhole along Rainbow Beach on the Sunshine Coast began expanding around 10.30pm.

"We were all in bed and I woke up to this noise of large flopping sounds that turned out be sand falling into the water," Mr Wotherspoon told ninemsn.

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"I watched for five minutes and said 'jeez it's getting bigger and bigger' then I woke up some other people at camp and thought we better get moving."

In no time the entire camp was awake as everyone ran around grabbing what they could before the creeping waters took it.

"There was a lot of panic and mayhem," the tow-truck driver said as families decamped and able-bodied adults moved their belongings before they started helping others.

Mr Wotherspoon tried to stop a friend's caravan being consumed by the hole but "it was too far gone," he said, and it went into the sandy abyss.

By Sunday morning the sinkhole measured about 50 metres by 150 metres wide, but it grew to 200 metres wide by Monday.

A geotechnical engineer advised the site is now relatively stable, with a flat beach edge forming.

Coastal erosion is still occurring, so more trees may fall down, and the exclusion zone has been expanded by 200 metres for safety reasons.

Camping grounds on either side of the site remain closed and the public has been urged to avoid the area, observe traffic barriers and warning signs.

All the school holiday campers escaped and no injuries were reported.

Geotechnical engineer Allison Golsby said the area has a history of sinkholes and should be closely monitored to warn of any further disasters.

She also said scientific reports indicate the entire peninsula could eventually fall away.

"People have said that at some stage they think Inskip Point may not be there," she told ABC radio.

"Now that could be thousands of years; it could be hundreds of years."