Gold Coast Oceanway: When Surfers Paradise missing link will be completed

Where there’s a will, there’s an oceanway. The much-used attraction’s northern will be completed. SUBSCRIBE FOR FULL STORY

The northern section of Oceanway is to be completed with the missing link between Surfers Paradise and Main Beach built once a section of foreshore smashed by storms is restored.

The Bulletin can reveal Gold Coast City Council is exploring several options for the link, including possible sections of boardwalk which will be sacrificial if the sand dunes cannot be replenished soon.

Surfers Paradise-based councillor Darren Taylor is keen to push forward with the multimillion-dollar boardwalk extensions, confident the missing section will be completed by 2028.

“You’ve got the sand bypass that will be up and in operation in the middle of 2024. That will start bringing sand from the seaway back into the northern end of Surfers Paradise,” Cr Taylor said.

Flashback: sand erosion at Narrowneck due to Tropical Cyclone Oma. Picture: Jerad Williams

“We are also doing other bodies of work to see if there is any additional improvements that can help restore the beaches at the northern end. But the sand bypass is the first piece of infrastructure which will be underway.”

Council has begun relocating sand cleared for development sites at the north of Surfers Paradise which was a “short term solution”.

Other options include whether the City needs additional reefs to protect the northern beaches.

“They’re (the officers) indicating up to five years time to improve the northern end of the beaches,” Cr Taylor said.

Some of the Oceanway would be built within the A-line boulder wall on the foreshore but other sections could be “sacrificial infrastructure”.

The beach stairway at Woodroffe Avenue, Main Beach. To the right is where the future Oceanway path is supposed to be built.

But those structures, which could include boardwalks, will not be built “unless the beach is up to the standard so a storm won’t impact”.

“The first challenge is improvement of the northern beaches,” Cr Taylor said.

Mayor Tom Tate on Tuesday said engineering work and planning would occur in the first two years of the new council.

He is confident all “the missing links” can be built and will advocate for 50-50 funding from the State for the public asset.

“The feedback has been that everyone that walks on the beach loves it. We want more of it, the connectivity,” Mr Tate said.

“It shouldn’t be left to the few priveleged people that have the oceanfront and we can’t walk there. The beach is for everyone.”

Division 10 candidate Mona Hecke, in responding to a Community Alliance survey, said connectivity was one of her top three issues and she supported completing the missing link Oceanway path at Main Beach.

The Bulletin in July 2022 was contacted by concerned residents after foreshore fencing collapsed and bulldozers were brought in by council around Woodroffe Avenue.

The area was the most northern access of the $2 million Main Beach South Oceanway project which had been in the design stage.

The section from Woodroffe Avenue to the Southport Surf Life Saving Club links The Spit.

“I was hoping to continue the Oceanway as soon as possible,” Cr Taylor said.

“When we had the big floods 18 months ago, all those beaches were affected. And at that point we determined we needed to do that work to get more volume of sand and protection of the northern end.”

The Gold Coast Oceanway. The City is looking at fixing the missing link between Surfers Paradise and Main Beach.

An update from officers sought by Cr Taylor reveals:

* The City will be procuring an engineering consultant to look at options for the most difficult section of the Oceanway between Woodroffe Avenue north to John Kemp Street.

* The original concept design from 2022 is still the preferred outcome although may be delayed until beach replenishment reaches the desired result.

* Alternative opportunities to complete this missing section are still being explored.

* Surfers Paradise Sand Backpass Pipeline Project forms part of the solution.

This project works with the Gold Coast Waterway Authority’s Sand Bypass system at The Spit enabling the transport of about 120,000 cubic metres of sand to the northern beaches annually.

Cr Darren Taylor — determined to complete “missing link” in Oceanway. Picture Glenn Hampson.

Pumping of sand will start midway through 2024 and continue for three months.

The City boasts 36 kilometres of off-road shared cycle and pedestrian pathways known as the Oceanway, with the newest link at Surfers South completed in March 2023.

The 1.6km section linking Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach via the beachfront created a four metre-wide pathway which had an increase of almost 80 per cent of users in the first four months of being constructed.

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