FLOATING WAVE FACTORY
SURFERS might want to keep an eye out for this sand-pumping barge off the Gold Coast for the next 16 weeks.
Because wherever she works from Palm Beach to The Spit, sandbanks the likes of which have never been seen before could create epic surf breaks.
But the council hasn’t called in the 111m Danish dredger at a price of $13.9 million just so boardriders can play around in the ocean.
The work carried out by the crew of the Balder R, owned by shipping company Rohde Nielsen, will deliver
the city’s largest ever offshore beach nourishing project, according to Mayor Tom Tate.
He said the plan was to widen beaches vulnerable to erosion caused by powerful cyclones, with three million cubic metres of sand to be sucked from the sea floor.
“The ship can hoover up
sand lying dead outside into the hopper and once that’s done they can move it in closer to the beach and Mother Nature does the rest,” Cr Tate said yesterday.
“(It will be) making sure the surf conditions are better than ever for surfers and most importantly of all it protects
the biggest asset that we have in our city.”
Cr Tate said the ship would work around the clock and warned other boaties it had a 500m safety exclusion zone.
Council coastal engineer Shannon Hunt said the benefits of the work would last at least 20 years and the shortterm benefits could be excellent surf.
“The benefits of this will be around for a generation,” Mr Hunt said.
“We could see beach widening by 20 to 50m but that’s all depending on the nature of the waves we get. The whole beach system will be similar, it will just be transferred seaward.
“From a surfing and beach use perspective it will be fantastic.”
Crew on the barge will work three-week shifts before refuelling in Brisbane.