‘Common sense has prevailed’ as dredging off West Beach dumped
Dredging of a sandbar 500 metres offshore of West Beach to replenish the same beach is “unlikely” to go ahead, with the environment department blaming “unfavourable weather and sea conditions”.
After significant community pushback against plans to dig up sand 500 metres offshore of West Beach to replenish sand reserves at the same beach, the Department for Environment and Water (DEW) has confirmed it is “unlikely” that the plan will go ahead.
DEW announced in September that 90,000 cubic metres of sand would be dredged and delivered to West Beach as part of a trial dubbed as a potential solution to Adelaide’s beach sand loss.
The dredging trial kicked off in early October and must conclude no later than 30 November.
Under the EPA-approved trial, sand is being dredged from an area south of North Haven Marina and delivered by barge to West Beach.
In September, DEW also announced that the trial would be expanded to dredge sand from an area about 500 metres off West Beach and from around the West Beach Boat Harbour.
The dredge management plan identified 100,000 cubic metres of sand as the potential maximum volume from the sand bar offshore of West Beach.
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Today, a DEW spokesman confirmed it is “unlikely that dredging will occur at the location 500 metres offshore of West Beach before the operational phase of the trial ends on 30 November”.
“Dredging crews are now in the process of relocating sand that builds up around the West Beach Boat Harbour and delivering it closer to the shore to help replenish the beach in front of the West Beach Surf Club,” the spokesman said.
“Investigations also identified a third area where sand has accumulated about 500 metres offshore of West Beach that could be relocated to the nearshore environment.
“Since the trial started in early October, numerous dredging days have been lost due to unfavourable weather and sea conditions.”
The spokesperson said the trial was “an important step in investigating the feasibility of dredging and relocating nearshore or offshore sand deposits as a long-term, sustainable method to offset ongoing coastal erosion”.
“The dredging trial has successfully relocated a significant volume of sand from an area south of the North Haven Marina where sand accumulates and delivered it by barge to West Beach,” the spokesman said.
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While the dredging trial will end in November, there is an “extensive monitoring program including bathymetric mapping, aerial imagery, beach profile survey and wave observations” that will continue for several months.
“The collection of this data will continue and will help inform future decision on managing Adelaide’s coastline,” the spokesman said.
The change to the trial follows West Beach and Henley Beach community groups including the Henley Sailing Club, Adelaide Sailing Club, West Beach Surf Life Saving Club sending a letter to Premier Peter Malinauskas.
The letter – shared with InDaily – saw the community groups reject the sandbar dredging approach, noting it was announced “with no notice nor meaningful consultation to the West Beach Community”.
The Adelaide Beach Management Review (ABMR), released last year, suggested dredging of sand from the seabed at “larger offshore deposits (subject to further investigations and approvals)” as the first recommendation.
Further, one option of Recommendation 2 in the ABMR was to collect sand from a seabed “using a small dredge between Largs Bay and North Haven”.
The group said it was worried that the central beaches shoreline would “suffer damage due to the agitation of settled sand being dredged closer to shore, only increasing the likelihood of greater northerly drift”.
The Save West Beach group said it felt “abandoned by the very government who promised the restoration of our iconic central suburban sandy beaches, which have been continuously dredged since the building of the Adelaide Boat Harbour more than twenty-five years ago”.
“Our community is angry and feeling completely let down by your government and this decision,” the group said in the letter.
In a social media post, local MP and the opposition’s environment spokesman Matt Cowdrey said “common sense has finally prevailed”.
Speaking to InDaily, the Member for Colton said the government needed to make a decision on how to replenish West Beach with sand in the long term.
“We need to have assurance from the government that there is at least 10 to 20 years of sand sources identified, otherwise this isn’t a long-term sustainable option,” he said.
“There’s a level of frustration of how long this has gone on for. The section of the beaches to the south between Glenelg and Kingston Park has had a solution in place now for nearly 15 years, and the same can’t be said for that section of beaches from West Beach further north.”
