Spotlight on Gold Coast beach and foreshore protection

Tom Tate, Gold Coast Mayor, said that the city’s 55 kilometres of ocean beaches withstood the force of ex-tropical cyclone Seth thanks to multi-million-dollar investments in major beach and foreshore protection works.

“For the past decade, we have increased our beach and foreshore preservation works to include new reefs, groyne extensions, dune planting, offshore sand dredging and creek dredging as well as the installation of a $8 million sand backpass pipe network,” said Mayor Tate.

Recent City-funded projects include:

• a 7.8km pipeline from the Sand Pumping Jetty back to Surfers Paradise (this pipe will replenish the foreshore, delivering around 120,000 cubic metres of sand back on to the beach, when completed in 2022,

• artificial reefs at Palm Beach and Narrowneck,

• the ongoing construction of seawalls along the coast,

• the ‘sand rainbowing’ project in 2017 (Gold Coast Beach Nourishment) which replenished the majority of beaches with three million cubic metres of sand,

• dune planting and repair works by volunteers – from The Spit to Coolangatta, etc.

“In the last decade, we have also invested more than $200 million in improving our major stormwater drain network to keep pace with urban growth,” concluded Tate.