Dunes at New Brighton beach are looking good

Published on 11 January 2019

Just over a year since major work was done to improve and stabilise sand dunes at New Brighton the benefits continue to be realised. 

In October 2017 Byron Shire Council undertook a beach scraping program to help protect the dune system against short to medium-term erosion and inundation from the ocean.

Chloe Dowsett, Council’s Coastal and Biodiversity Coordinator, said bull dozers and excavators spent three weeks working on 1.3km of beachfront at New Brighton, moving sand from the intertidal zone up onto the sand dunes to improve their width, size and volume.

“When we did this work we had to replant the dunes with native plants, some of which we took from the original dunes, and they are now established, providing great cover and helping to stabilise the sand,” Ms Dowsett said.

“Our bush regeneration team and environmental staff have been working hard in this area for almost a year now to make sure vegetation has re-established which is important for birds and marine animals like turtles,” she said.

“When the beach scraping was finished last year the results were immediate in that there was a lot more protection for houses and roads in the New Brighton area.

“This is particularly important when coastal erosion is a problem when we have storm events or large and damaging waves,” she said.

“It’s only now we are seeing results of the revegetation project and staff are very pleased with how things are progressing.

“What is important is that people continue to stay off the dunes and use only formalised beach accesses to allow the native vegetation to thrive,” Ms Dowsett said.

“We’re hoping holiday makers this January will heed this message and not walk across or set up shade shelters on the dunes,” she said.

For more information contact Chloe Dowsett on 6626 7128 or 0427 210 516.