Largest dune restoration project for Coastcare Waikato

Coastcare Waikato – a partnership between local communities, iwi, district councils and Waikato Regional Council to protect and restore the region’s coastlines – this year undertook its largest dune restoration project along 700 meters of Whangamatā shoreline that was badly eroded by Cyclone Gabrielle.

The cyclone removed much of the dunes at the south end of the beach, increasing the exposure of 30-plus properties to future storms and big swells.

Coastcare coordinator Andy Warneford, who works with communities between Tairua and Whiritoa, says the landowners approached Thames-Coromandel District Council wanting a solution.

“Of course, they talked about sea walls, but we managed to steer them in the direction of giving a soft coastal method a chance to show what can be done.”

Coastcare Waikato had already successfully restored a number of beaches in the Coromandel Peninsula with a soft engineering method known as a ‘whole of dune approach’, for example, at Kūaotunu, Tairua, Greys Beach and Cooks Beach.

The whole of dune approach involves spraying and removing remaining exotic vegetation along the top of a dune, burying it, and reshaping the dune to the correct gradient using earthmoving equipment and beach sand.

To read the full story about this beach restoration project, please click HERE.