West Beach replenishment begins to return a usable beach to locals
West Beach is starting to look like a beach again after sand from the first round of major carting has settled in, part of a fight to save the rapidly eroding coast. SEE BEFORE AND AFTER.
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The first round of sand carting to replenish the ailing West Beach has been hailed a success by government officials.
The beach, which had virtually been washed away by the beginning of December, has transformed back to a usable coastline.
Sand was transported during December from the Semaphore South breakwater at Point Malcolm to two spots along West Beach – opposite Rockingham St and in front of West Beach Parks.
The sudden build up left massive piles of sand, which have since fallen forward to recreate the beach and restore the heavily eroded dunes.
A total of 95,000 cubic metres of sand have so far been shifted to help fight the estimated 115,000 cubic metres lost from West Beach every year due to longshore drift.
The majority of carted sand has been dropped in front of the West Beach Park dunes, with 37,000 cubic metres placed north of the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club.
A further 15,000 cubic metres will be taken from between the Semaphore and Largs Bay jetties after March in order to avoid summer.
Somewhere between 5000 and 10,000 cubic metres would again be sourced from Semaphore South.
Department of Environment coastal management manager Murray Townsend told Charles Sturt councillors on Monday that West Beach had already experienced “a reasonable cut back in relatively mild conditions”, which proved “how sensitive” the area was.
He said the area north of the SLSC would be the focus of the next round of carting.
Dr Townsend also said the carting was restrictive in terms of where sand could be taken and a future pipeline would relieve pressure on the Semaphore South area.
Department executive director Cate Hart said a community reference group would be established by March to help inform the management of sand replenishment in the future.
West Beach SLSC president Peter Zuill said there had been a “big improvement” at the beach.
“The sandhills still haven’t fully recovered … but there seems to be better sandbars forming offshore which we haven’t seen for a long time,” Mr Zuill said.
He was, however, interested to see how it would cope with winter storms.\
Environment Minister David Speirs said the improvement at West Beach showed the $48.4 million coastal protection plan was working.
“In even better news for local residents this is just the start of our plan to fix West Beach once and for all,” he said.
“While sand carting is the short-term solution, the next step is to undertake a mass sand replenishment from an external source and then ultimately build a sand-recycling pipeline from Semaphore which will secure our northern beaches for future generations.”
The State Government in October backed down from plans to take mass amounts of sand from Semaphore Beach to West Beach after months of intense pressure from protesters.
The majority of sand is now being taken from the Semaphore South breakwater.
A pipeline will eventually be built to continually move sand without the need for trucks.