Where the best beach breaks ever seen on the Gold Coast could pop up
SURFERS might want to keep an eye out for this sand pumping barge off the Gold Coast for the next 16 weeks. It’s big, it’s metal and it is bringing top level waves to the Glitter Strip for four months.
Beaches & Fishing
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SURFERS might want to keep an eye out for this sand-pumping barge off the Gold Coast for the next 16 weeks.
Because wherever she works from Palm Beach to The Spit, sand banks the likes of which have never been seen before could create epic surf breaks.
But the council hasn’t called in the 111m Danish dredger at a price of $13.9 million just so boardriders can play around in the ocean.
The work done by the crew on the Balder R, owned by shipping company Rohde Nielsen, will deliver the city’s largest ever offshore beach nourishing project, according to Mayor Tom Tate.
He said the plan was to widen beaches vulnerable to erosion caused by powerful cyclones, with three million cubic metres of sand to be sucked from the sea floor.
“The ship can hoover up sand lying dead outside into the hopper and once that’s done they can move it in closer to the beach and Mother Nature does the rest,” Cr Tate said yesterday.
“(It will be) making sure the surf conditions are better than ever for surfers and most importantly of all it protects the biggest asset that we have in our city.”
Cr Tate said the ship would work around the clock and warned other boaties it had a 500m safety exclusion zone.
Gold Coast City coastal engineer Shannon Hunt said the benefits of the work would last at least 20 years and the short-term benefits could be excellent surf.
“The benefits of this will be around for a generation,” Mr Hunt said.
“We could see beach widening by 20 to 50m but that’s all depending on the nature of the waves we get. The whole beach system will be similar, it will just be transferred seaward.
“From a surfing and beach use perspective it will be fantastic.”
Crew on the barge will work three-week shifts before refuelling in Brisbane.
SWELL FORECAST:
THE Gold Coast is in for another spike in swell, just days after 2m surf closed beaches for two days and drew thousands of surfers to the city’s southern point breaks.
Even Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth was out trading barrels with mate and former world tour surfer Luke Munro yesterday.
Coastalwatch chief forecaster Ben Macartney said he expected a southerly swell to hit the Gold Coast by Monday, serving up solid 1.5m waves thanks to a storm in the Tasman Sea.
“There should be a south-easterly kick early next week,” he said.