Hundreds of lost sunglasses and swim goggles have washed up on a Gold Coast beach after unusual surf conditions.

Burleigh Heads residents awoke on Friday morning to find the unusual haul shining in the morning light amongst seaweed along the iconic beach.

Local Judy Cumming was on her daily walk when she stumbled across the find.

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"[I saw] probably about 150 pairs of sunglasses, probably about 100 pairs of goggles," she told ABC Gold Coast.

"I'm not exaggerating and people have been walking past and taking a pair."

Ms Cumming and her friends regularly collect garbage they find washed up on the beach and on Friday, the group collected their unusual haul on a table and offered them to passers-by.

They usually find the odd item at low tide but Ms Cumming thinks the weather conditions combined to present them with the unusual phenomenon.

"I think the way the waves are running at the moment and the northerly wind conditions are making all the seaweed come into the beach," she said.

"All this stuff is caught up in the seaweed [and] that's why we have so many sunglasses and goggles on the beach."

'Amazing' phenomenon says expert

Experts said the strange sight could have been caused by a number of surf and weather conditions.

Darrell Strauss from the Griffith University Centre for Coastal Management admitted it was a little odd.

"It's amazing actually," Dr Strauss said.

"I guess though, if you consider how many people go for a swim down at Burleigh over summer often with their sunnies and their goggles on..."

He said the large haul of eyewear could just be this summer's collection of lost glasses from Burleigh Heads beach as the lightweight plastic items gather in the depths with the seaweed.

"They just drift out to that deeper water where not much is really happening," Dr Strauss said.

"Over time, they're gathering out there and just washing backwards and forwards."

He said the causes could be similar to recent mass of jellyfish washing up in Deception Bay.

"The wind ... kind of collects that stuff in the corner at Burleigh," he said.

"The other process is upwelling [where] the surface water is moving offshore and it gets replaced by cold water from underneath."