A Nourishing Activity
Starting back in June, the Gold Coast Beach Nourishment Program has been dumping and spraying sand from Palm Beach up to Surfers Paradise. When it finishes in October, the program will have shifted three million cubic metres of sand from offshore reserves into the nearshore zone.
For comparison, that's six times what passes Point Danger via longshore drift in an average year.
Dr Darrell Strauss is a Research Manager at the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management, and he explains that the project involves dividing the coast up into "boxes" when repositioning the sand.
"We can't just place the sand equally along the coast, that'll lead to storm bars," says Dr Darrell. "So we have a schedule. The sand is placed strategically."
In short, the project approximates the desired pattern of bank-channel-bank, and never is the pattern more pronounced than when it's freshly dumped.
Last week, the Gold Coast City Council announced the Palm Beach section of the project was 95% complete, and then on the weekend the Gold Coast was hit by the first significant swell since the banks took effect.
Photographer Andrew Shield said Palmy was breaking "just like a reef break" and he swam out to shoot it. In the water were Coby Perkovich, Dan Pryor, Joel Nantes, Reef Heazlewood, and Nick Vasicek, amongst others.
If these shots look good then Dr Darrell is quietly confident it could be better. "It was a bonus to have this south swell, however I'm waiting for a big east swell." And it's not just Palmy that's prepped for action: "the good thing at the moment is that everywhere has banks," says the doctor.
The nourishment program is intended as a long term fix to coastal erosion, the sand sprayed into the wave zone - called 'rainbowing' - will move onshore while the sand dumped in deeper water will remain, hopefully, for months or years.
And the effect on the waves? "Personally I think the banks will hang around," says Dr Darrell confidently. "The bigger swells may scrape the tops off the banks but hopefully they won't link up."
Whatever happens, the team at Griffith and Gold Coast City Council are gonna "monitor the hell out of it". Citing the 'sand slug' at Cronulla as a lost opportunity, Dr Darrell says they'll have survey teams mapping the movement of the banks well after the project ends in October.
As for Palm Beach, the nourishment program is Phase 1 of a bigger project. Phase 2 is the design and installation of an artifical reef in 2019...but that's a whole nother story.
Click here if you wanna know more about the Gold Coast Beach Nourishment Project.
All photos by Andrew Shield.
The 'Balder R' rainbows another load of sand into the wave zone near Palm Beach.
Robbie Rickard is a happy taxpayer.
Coby Perkovich in sequence.
Joel Nantes backside jam.
Nick Vasicek venting frontside.
Reef Heazlewood in sequence.
Dan Pryor
Reef over sand
The pulled back shots show how pronouced the bank is
Meanwhile, the sand spraying continues further north
Comments
wow, that sure makes an interesting juxtaposition against the greed and over-commercialised smegma of a wave pool.
create waves. Looks pretty easy.
if there was some way of anchoring the bank a bit more it sounds like a massive win-win.
If the coming artificial reef tilts more toward 'surfing amenity' then the Goldy may be on its way.
Ha! Old mate with a snapped board in the last shot.. with a classic body pose: "fark I wish I was still out there".
If that last photo was taken on Sunday morning then I was about 4 metres away from him when old mate snapped it. A rogue set of waves (larger than the majority) were marching toward us and we managed to get under the first 2 waves by the skin of our arses, but the third was fucking big by that days standards. Old Mate ( i dont know him btw), was a little further out than myself and tried to duck dive as it was breaking just in front of him.(i bailed off my board as 6 to 8 foot of white water was about to fuck me up!)
After a brief hold down i came up thinking 'where's old mate?' and there he was, sitting on half his board. The look on his face is still clear in my mind.
Disbelief, devastation, bewilderment, shock, possible physical pain and generally pissed off were all there to see in an instant.
Couldn't help but feel sorry for old mate. But life goes on and i got a couple of tasty waves after that. ( yes, i guess i'll learn to live with myself ; )
Also, stoked to see references to the Sand Slug. I still think that (and this) is one of the best solutions for easing surf congestion in the future.
Yes good for a wave - but I wonder what this does to the total environment/system in the area? I've never seen any intervention from man, being any good for the long term.
Gotta love the Goldie how they don't give a shit and move sand around a groyne here and a groyne there, keeps things interesting.
Sunny coast wants to build a rock wall for the maroochy river. Big opposition and rightly so. Why wouldn't they consider this. Anybody up here notice there is already no sand at yaroomba, where did it go?
The yaroomba beach development is pretty much signed off on. Instead of surfers lobbying against something that will happen in some shape or form, I'd love to see sekasui pick up the tab for this and it could if we lobby for this to be a clause. It' s too late to stop it, but not for clauses. Honestly they (sekasui) are going all 'international artists' when all they need to do is turn it into sunny coast pipe by, pumping sand.
An engineer who's been monitoring sand movements here for years said sand gains/losses between Caloundra and Peregian, when averaged out, are pretty well zero. Most Moreton sand doesn't land until Sunshine which I found pretty interesting. He said the biggest movement is sand going up Maroochy river.
You could easily argue that the training of rivermouths along the east coast has been the greatest human intervention in history as far as creating/improving surf spots and creating new and highly productive fish/invertebrate habitat goes.
Without the rock groyne rivermouth waves along the east coast there would be a shit load less surf, and good reliable surf available.
V. surprised there is opposition to training the Maroochy river mouth.
"You could easily argue that the training of rivermouths along the east coast has been the greatest human intervention in history as far as creating/improving surf spots."
Agreed. All those incredible man-made spots sitting in plain sight. Perhaps people don't realise they're 'artificial' waves?
There has also been a few waves along the east coast that were once regional classics destroyed by the construction of breakwalls, more marina construction types than river entrances though.
Which ones Uncle?
Not having a go, I can't think of them off the top of my head is all.
I'm going well back in history Freeride.....
Coffs Harbour - based on photographs pre-marina, southern/northern walls and quarry, it looked like wedge city with swell from all direction wrapping around the islands, reef and then onto the beaches.
Trial Bay - potential for a point break taken away by the convicts.
Crowdy Head - use to be a Cresent Head type wave and surfed regularly by those travelling up the coast in the early days, harbour walls were further extended blocking all swell angle.
Windang Island - Once had nice a-frames on beach the nth side of the island, not sure if new entrance has any effect on the wave quality off the island itself.
A lot more locations that benefit from breakwalls though.
Can this gold coast dredge be hired? haha
Not that I'm of the vintage to have witnessed it, but Carties / Mooloolaba from what I've heard was better before the Mooloolah river had groynes.
I'm fascinated by this topic, but I'm not sure if there's enough evidence that "Regional Classic" waves were "destroyed by the construction of breakwalls" (at least, from the locations you've listed here)
The first construction in Coffs Harbour was in 1890 (the jetty), and the breakwall consutruction began around 1912 (source).
The "Trial Bay Gaol was established in 1876 as an experimental Public Works Gaol where the inmates would construct the breakwater. Although work started in 1877, it was not completed until 1886 ... the gaol was closed in July 1903. Severe storms and increasing costs had seen only some 300 metres of the planned 1500 metre break wall completed." (source)
At Crowdy Head the "formation of the coastal harbour commenced in 1900 with construction of a breakwall" (however, "between 1972 and 1979 the breakwater was extended"). (source)
As for Windang Island, "Preparations for the construction of a breakwater on the northern side of Windang Island and a dredged channel commenced in 1890 to enable ocean going vessels to access the lake entrance. The scheme was abandoned in the early 1900s." (source).
As all of these projects started in the late 1800's or early 1900's, how do we know what the surf was like before construction started?
And was Crowdy Head really a Crescent Head type wave before the breakwater extension in the 70's? The angle looks a little too acute compared to CH.
I'm pretty certain Crowdy was a natural harbour until the 1970's, all the old photo's I had seen in a book about the fishing history of the area and shipping on the river showed just a couple of fishing boats tucked in behind a small point of natural boulders, no breakwall to be seen and stories of boats being constantly destroyed by the swells getting into the natural harbour. Maybe refencing the quarry on the headlands which was freighted back to the Manning river breakwall in that 1900's.
I got stuck there in a flood event just after I brought my first car on a road trip up the coast with another mate. It was possibly an ECL or cyclone remenants (March from memory) couldn't go any where as road to highway was under water as we wanted to get up to the goldy at the time. We were fishing and surfing our way up the coast so weren't too concerned about the weather until heard the road was closed and we were stuck there. Lucky there were surfable waves from the boat harbour entrance through to the beach, locals said it was a once in 5 year event but use to break alot more pre-breakwalls and they compared it to Cresent Head but obviously lees frequent by the coast angle. Judging by length of rides and froth levels assumed it was once a regional classic in the early days. Passed through some years later and asked when it broke last, the answer was 'probably when you were here last'! haha
Probably a case of, if only this faced more sth, more nth, tide was lower, tide was higher, could move some sand here, blow this rock up, fill in this reef hole etc, classic surf dreaming to make better waves
Unreal mate.. love these stories!
One of the best waves I've ever surfed is man made.
This is a great development and a way to increase our options. Not sure of the sure of the cost and the regularity one needs to 'move' the sand but heh, this a totally viable option. And proven at that.
OV500, man does not just destroy the environment. Not really relevant here, anyway.
Well jealous - Wish they did something like this along the Victor Harbour stretch. Nope, instead we get a massive tuna pen which tourists won't be interested in, causing a boom in shark numbers to chew our legs off while we surf closeouts.
Awesome
Who pays for this? Why the goldy where are world class waves? Can i get gofundme/kickstarter for Portsea? If this thing needed a test, i know the coastline.
In Queensland anything goes.
This would never be approved in Vic.
Except of course if those Portsea mansions were ocean side and in danger of being eroded in to the sea.
The Council is paying, therefore ratepayers. Plenty of info here...
www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/gold-coast-beach-nourishment-38539.html
The Commonwealth Games appears to be a key driver for the program, ensuring beaches are primed for when the worlds eye turns to the coast...
Cost is around $14 MIL.
Hey _benno, I am of a vintage to remember just. I do remember in my teenage years after the marina/rivermouth was done that Peter Troy(RIP) had photos on the wall of his surf shop at Mooloolaba. He used to rave about how it was a longer ride than Jbay. The longest right he had ever surfed and he travelled all over the world.
The DTT banks.
Don't Tell Tate?
Do Thank Tate?
Shit, we need this in Perth badly. Need to to get Twiggy off the Force and into this!
The Gold Coast City Council hasn't gone into this lightly. I worked on few research areas as a skipper regarding the whole thing. They have underwater ROV footage of all the local inshore reefs ,,dating back a few years. The bottom was mapped out and sand/water samples were/are extensively taken over a wide grid. The ROVs were also sent into the shallower sandy regions to investigate what sea grasses and other plant life grows in the very inshore surfzone . Any negative effects of dredging and sand dumping can now be monitored and compared to data and images already collected, and hopefully adjusted accordingly.
I,m not the biggest fan of the GCCC , but I think they've actually done some due diligence on this one ,, for a change.
In Perth there are plans of increasing the size of a marina at my old local which will completley block all these waves. Surfers have no say it seems compared to rich boaties.
http://imgur.com/a/jVhU9
http://imgur.com/JYyVcxI
http://imgur.com/a/jVhU9
Breaks once or twice a year....
That's a bit of an understatement. when i lived there i surfed it at least once every two weeks. except in summer. especially the far left to the north, that copped a bit of swell for mulleroo area.
It's Back! "GCCC Beach Nourishment" the sequel (Rainbow Rising)
Let's carry on with Stu's whole nother story as told by nother Swellnetonian...Shh!
Stu rightly & clearly points that Palm Beach Nourishment Program lays foundation for Reef.
Ink is not yet dry on Palm Beach Reef approval from yesterday Tuesday 28 Aug 2018
$18.2m Palm Beach Shoreline Project @ 19th Ave is just north of Pacific Surf Club
Work Commences May 2019 onto completion date of October 2019
1) Boulder Reef uses 8T boulder rock and measures 160m x 80m x 1.5m deep
*Primary purpose of Reef is Coastal Protection
*It also 'has the potential' to create a Surf Break 'under favourable swell contitions'.
2)From Reef 270m offshore The Rainbow Dredge backfills sand to Currumbin Creek Groyne .
Note: Reef Waves were modeled using the before "Normal deeper depths" as vid shows.
Local Surfers swear Sand pumping buried all beachbreaks from Tweed north to PB'SLSC.
All now mostly unsurfable gutted flatlining dragstrips due to GCCC intervention.
Annual Sandpumping is again currently filling in our sweet Burleigh beachies.
Footnote: GCCC wish to stringline a host of PB Reefs with Wall of Sand. (Surf Charter Tours)
Gone the deep inshore Points & Shapely sand dune A Frames.(Do the Rainbow Bombie Hop)
The Gold Coast Strip (II) Wave models are Off & Racing ...
For Full details GCCC + Following Reports all date 28 August 2018
GC Bulletin 'facebook' "Free Vid" comments by (Liz Cantor)+ adviser our own Andy M
My GC News.
Qld/GC 9 News (Promo Video only)
I am malnourished. A bit of adjustable techknology is what I see in the not to distant future.
I am malnourished. A bit of adjustable techknology is what I see in the not too distant future.
Phase 2 continues with Swellnet feature:
"Palm Beach Reef given Green Light" Wed 29 Aug 2018
Article further informs of Contractors + Mayor's comments
See also iconic Hydrographic Map of majestic natural Palm Beach Reef by MHS.
For additional initial works reading...Check out MHS website NEWS ( July 1st 2016)
"Protecting Our Valuable Shorelines: Mapping of The Palm Beach Reef"