Coastal Management Demonstrations

The Beach Protection Authority of Queensland provides advice to coastal local authorities on how to manage the beaches under their control. This advice often includes recommendations for various local authority funded beach protection or dune management works. Such works are subject to a 25 percent State Government subsidy. It often is difficult to get a local authority to commit funds to projects when there is no local experience of the benefits which can accrue from such a project. To overcome this, the Beach Protection Authority has initiated a programme of coastal demonstration works in selected areas. These works, which are jointly funded by the local authority and the Beach Protection Authority, are of limited scale but are sufficiently large to ensure their viability as a demonstration of specific aspects of coastal management. The programme had its first full year in 1987/88 but, in that short period, has had some outstanding successes. Works carried out have included beach nourishment, creek mouth diversion and dune management. Both tried and innovative approaches have been used for these projects. Details of various demonstrations and an assessment of the programme will be provided together with brief case studies of some of the projects of particular technical interest. These case studies will include information on projects such as beach nourishment at Woorim on Bribie Island where sand was placed in and behind the surf zone using a bow pump-out facility fitted to the Port of Brisbane Authority's dredger, 'Sir Thomas Hiley' and the movement of this sand monitored using surveys and radio active tracers.