First used in the 1800s to open up trade and for settlement
Navigation of the river has historically been very
dangerous
Many capsized boats attempting to access the entrance
Training walls constructed in the late 1890s
Controlling sand movement and improving navigation
Extended by 380m in the early 1960s
The extension only improved navigation temporarily
The problem
The natural longshore drift (travelling north along Leticia Spit) was
being trapped behind the southern wall
The drift was unable to cross the Tweed River entrance bar and nourish the southern GC beaches
TRESBP (Tweed River Entrance
Sand Bypassing Project)
A project located on the border of NSW and QLD
Falls into the jurisdiction of GC city council and the Tweed Shire council
The catchment for the river is approximately 1000km2.
The river flows through the regional centre of Murwillumbah and extensive estuarine wetlands before
flowing out through the trained entrance.
The catchment drains the remnants of a volcanic caldera (a large crater). The volcano has been inactive for many years
Mt Warning remains as the dominant volcanic plug
Issues
Sand began to build up behind the southern wall
Once the sand had built up to the end of the southern wall it began
flowing around and into the entrance
The sand just recreated the bar that had be a
navigational hazard in the past
The beaches on the southern Gold Coast, including
Rainbow Bay, Greenmount, Coolangatta and Kirra,
are some of the most visited in Australia.
Important for tourism industry
Beaches are aesthetically pleasing
Recreation: beach cricket, swimming and surfing
Provides money for the local economy
Sandy beaches also provide a buffer of sand
Prevents extreme erosion from damaging high rise buildings,
roads and other infrastructure that have been built in close
proximity to the shoreline
Attempts to resolve the issues
After the 1967 cyclone, seawalls were constructed
along the coastline
Sand was periodically dredged from the
sand reserve that was building up behind
the southern training wall
Artificially nourished the beaches and
provided protection to infrastructure and
other assets
In 1974-75 a total of 760000 cubic metres of sand
was dredged from the TR entrance and
deposited on Kirra beach
Expensive, costing over $1 million and was not seen as a permanent solution
Solutions
TRESBP was implemented in two stages
Stage 1
Involved dredging sand from the TR
entrance and then the direct
deposition of the sand on the
southern GC beaches
In 1995-96 and 1998, 3 million cubic metres of sand
was dredged from the TR entrance and deposited
on the southern GC beaches
Stage 2
The installation of a permanent bypassing
system, designed, constructed and operated by
a private compamny
Commenced on the 4th of May 2001
Facts and Figures
Between 200000 cubic metres and 1 Million cubic metres of sand can
be transported along Letitia Spit in any year
The sand starts in mid-northern NSW and flows
north, parallel to the coastline, before slipping into
deep water, north of Fraser Island QLD
Tweed Sand Bypassing consists of a jetty and floating dredge
Designed to collect sand from the Letitia Spit
The jetty is 450m long and supports 10 submersible jets (the jets collect the sand).
The pumps don't 'suck' sand from the ocean bed or out of the river, but collect the sand
from the longhsore drift
The jetty is unable to collect all the sand along Letitia Spit
The sand moves into the Tween River Entrance
The sand that ends up in the entrance moves across the
bar and forms sand shoals offshore of Duranbah and
Point Danger
Stakeholders
These groups or individuals manage the coastline
depending on their point of interest
Recreational Fishermen
Tourism operators
Swimmers
Surfers
Definitions
Trained Entrance
River entrances trained by breakwater to fix their location
and ensure navigability. They also assist in mitigating
(making it less severe) floods.
Catchment
The area drained by a river or water body. Aka river basin
The periodic dredging still occurs on the Gold
Coast. In July 2017, whale researchers and
tourism operators believed the arrival of a giant
dredge off the Gold Coast was scaring off
migrating humpback whales.