Sand Management at Burleigh Heads

The recent high seas created heavy erosion on most Gold Coast Beaches, but Burleigh escaped relatively unharmed. Being protected by the Burleigh Headland national park, which stands sentinel over the small township, Burleigh has still been drawn into the sand pumping issues which have affected the southern end of the Gold Coast.

As you can see from the main photo at the top of the blog, the beach has been around the width that it is now for nearly 90 years.

When the subject of pumping sand onto Burleigh was raised many people expressed a wide range of concerns which need to be resolved before any pumping should go ahead.

The area effected by sand movement along the coast is wider than just the beaches, issues such as flood mitigation for Palm Beach canal development, Tallebudgera Creek mouth stabilization, tidal flow through Tallebudgera up to and including Fleays Fauna Reserve all need to be considered, as well as the sand on Burleigh beach and the safety of the popular Tallebudgera swimming area.

Messing around with the natural flow of sand has wide reaching implications for not just the beaches but for a broad surrounding area.

The last thing Burleigh needs is a sand wasteland that not only has turned Kirra into a desert, but has had major impact on business and tourism as well.

Previously, dredging at Tallebudgera creek mouth may have solved the Palm Beach flood mitigation problems and added sand to the beach at Burleigh, but has created increased water flow through the creek mouth. The sand delta of the creek mouth is natures way of softening the tidal flow both in and out of the creek.

From the furtherest tidal reaches up the creek, the influences on fish and water bird breeding grounds will be noticeable. Closer to the coast the deeper water entrance and increased water flow results in a more dangerous situation in one of the Gold Coasts already notorious swimming spots. During the low tide when the sandbanks are most noticeable, the amount of water flowing into the entrance will create greater currents through a wider entrance, while on the high tide the extra water flowing over the bank will draw any sand buildup out to sea.

The effect of the Talle groyne deflects sand further out to sea than would be normal this also limits the amount of sand that runs parallel to the coastline. The flow on effects from the destabilized creek mouth runs around the base of the headland creating deep holes in the undulating depth of the sand bank. This destroys the long smooth sandbanks that create the waves that Burleigh Heads has become famous for. These hollows in the sand banks then make their way north which continues the erosion problem

Before any more decisions by so called experts, that created the problems from sand mining, groynes and sand pumping, are to go ahead we should consider the other options than one large dredging operation from Talle Creek onto Burleigh beach. If sand replenishment to Burleigh beach has to be done than we should look at other options such as smaller and more frequent sand replenishment so as not to disrupt the coastal sand flow. Other options may include sand from out to sea or from areas where the sand build up needs to be reduced such as Kirra.