Reshaped coastline brings in the fish

June Cummings reports
About 3 to 6m of coastal dunes were carved out and dumped in the ocean. But in one spot they  formed an offshore sand bar, resulting in a gully that is providing beach fisherman with tidy catches, most early mornings and evenings.
But beach lovers had their playgrounds restored, within days of the pounding waves subsiding, in what has become a well-oiled operation.
Gold Coast City Council deployed a fleet of heavy machinery in a military type exercise, to remove tonnes of debris and fallen beach protection fences along the length of the coast, open accessways to beaches and reprofile vertical dune escarpments.
Beaches with the best access were selected and at low tide a platoon of heavy machinery and men – 30t excavators, Moxy dump trucks, a Cat D4 dozer, a 925 loader, 4 x 4 backhoes and 12t trucks, hit the beaches running.
At the northern end of the coast, the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) joined in the beach restoration operation, dredging a channel in the Broadwater which will last four to five weeks and deliver 40,000m³ of sand into a near-shore zone. The sand is then dredged and transported by barge operated by McQuaige Marine to nourish northern beaches.
At the southern end, pumped sand from the joint state governments’ Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Project is replenishing some badly eroded southern beaches. The protective boulder wall along the length of the Gold Coast was exposed in only one vulnerable area.
The most difficult task executed with supreme precision was compacting and transforming the eroded dangerous cliff-like dune escarpments into accessible slopes.
Council says that the bulk of the sand will return to shore naturally, with normal winds and seas moving the offshore sand bar back to the upper beach.
While beaches are recovering quickly, and it is business as usual for locals and holiday makers, council maintains ongoing sand dredging and beach nourishment operations.