A breakthrough at Bribie Island that caused damage to parts of the Sunshine Coast shoreline has officially closed as the final push of sand reconnected the Island barrier overnight.<\/p>\n
The breakthrough was caused by large swells generated by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred early this year.<\/p>\n
About 20 Hall Contracting personnel were working around the clock to deliver the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jen Kettleton-Butler, a volunteer with the Pumicestone Passage Catchment Management Board (PPCMB), said it was a momentous moment for Caloundra.<\/p>\n
“The tide has been turned overnight and I don’t mean that lightly,” Ms Kettleton-Butler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jen Kettleton-Butler, Les Clarke and Ken Mewburn are part of the Pumicestone Passage Catchment Management Board, which lobbied for the work to be undertaken. (Supplied: Jen Kettleton-Butler)<\/p>\n
“That Alfred breakthrough started on February 27 this year, and I was standing on the Island the moment it broke through by sheer coincidence.<\/p>\n
“It widened to about 450 metres in the intervening period, and it became a real threat to those low-lying areas opposite and adjacent, with higher tides and open ocean wave energy hitting and absolutely wreaking havoc on the shoreline.”<\/p>\n
Coastal barrier<\/p>\n
The Island experienced several breakthroughs since Cyclone Seth in 2022.<\/p>\n
The northern tip of the 34-kilometre-long island plays a crucial role in protecting Golden Beach in the Caloundra region from severe coastal events.<\/p>\n
The emergency works fixed what is referred to as the “second breakthrough” with further work to be undertaken on the original breakthrough, which occurred in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The breaking off of Bribie Island’s northern tip created a channel close to a kilometre wide in October 2022. (Doug Bazley, Bluey’s Photography)<\/p>\n
“That [Cyclone] Seth breakthrough will be maintained for the time being,” Ms Kettleton-Butler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They’re going to build up \u2014 between the Alfred and Seth breakthrough \u2014 a mountain of sand that is going to be between 80 to 100 metres wide and 3 metres higher than the highest tide level.<\/p>\n
“It’s wider and stronger than what our barrier Island has been in that section for decades.”<\/p>\n
Cyclone season<\/p>\n
The work forms part of the state government’s $20 million emergency works package announced in June and is being undertaken by coastal dredging company Hall Contracting. \u00a0<\/p>\n
More than 250,000 cubic metres of sand has been pumped to fill the breakthroughs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Over 250,000 cubic metres of sand has been pumped as part of the operation. (Supplied: Kendall Morton)<\/p>\n
Caloundra Coast Guard Commander Roger Pearce said it was critical the work was completed before the beginning of the cyclone season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Residents will be sleeping better tonight, it’s given them \u2014 probably a 50-metre \u2014 soon to be 90-metre sand buffer on the Island as we move the pumping north,” Commander Pearce said.<\/p>\n
“That will give them complete protection from the open ocean.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Caloundra Coast Guard Commander Roger Pearce says the work will offer complete protection to Golden Beach residents. (ABC Sunshine Coast:\u00a0Owen Jacques)<\/p>\n
Commander Pearce said stage two work would take place further south.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s in what they call Factory Gutter, and it’s another area which is extremely thin and we get washovers at high tide,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Stage three [work] will be tacked on just to the north of where we finished last night, which will connect up to the Bribie bar.<\/p>\n
“Stage four is the area referred to as the mini-bar, which allows a passage from the normal Bribie bar into the northern end of Pumicestone Passage because, at the moment, coast guard can’t get our vessels over that bar.”<\/p>\n
Local member for Caloundra Kendall Morton said the emergency work was a major milestone in the ongoing project.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kendall Morton says if work had not been undertaken, the island’s northern tip would have disappeared. (Supplied: Kendall Morton)<\/p>\n
“This has been a known issue and a genuine concern for the people of Caloundra for over two decades,” Ms Morton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This is a huge step in the right direction, and the Pumicestone Passage is such an important waterway for so many reasons.<\/p>\n
“What we’ve managed to achieve by putting the Island back together is to protect this natural, beautiful waterway.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A breakthrough at Bribie Island that caused damage to parts of the Sunshine Coast shoreline has officially closed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[162755,162756,162757,162758,11758,43861,162759,5443,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-281293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bribie-island","9":"tag-bribie-island-breakthrough","10":"tag-coastal-errosion","11":"tag-coastal-management","12":"tag-construction","13":"tag-cyclone-alfred","14":"tag-dredging","15":"tag-engineering","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topnews","21":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}