Marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent, severe and lasting for longer periods of time. While the impacts of marine heatwaves on coral reefs and kelp forests are now well established. The impacts of heatwave events on intertidal ecosystems and their ecosystem services are poorly understood. Intertidal communities are in many ways preadapted to thermal stress and desiccation but heatwave events can exceed these tolerances causing losses to some parts of assemblages. Intertidal areas are also prone to ‘terrestrial heatwave events’, in fact repeated exposure to high air temperatures followed by rapid cooling may be an additional form of ecological stress. This study, surveyed 8 intertidal rocky reefs along the sub-tropical zone of the east coast of Australia (South East QLD and Northern NSW), over 12 months. A marine heatwave was experienced in January 2025 and the extent of the impact to the intertidal environment was documented, between the 8 shores surveyed, varying levels of solar radiation and heating were observed, thus results inferred the effects natural shading had on mitigating these impacts. The potential impacts of increasing marine heatwave events on the functional ecology and ecosystem services provided by these shores was also discussed.