Plan to save eroded foreshore may create perfect wave

GOLD Coast City Council has ticked off on an $18 million plan not just to save one of the city’s most eroded beaches but to possibly create a “bommie” or perfect wave for surfers.

Councillors yesterday gave the green light to an officer’s recommendation for a two-year contract with Hall Contracting Pty Ltd and Heron Construction Company Ltd to build an artificial reef off Palm Beach.

Documents provided to the meeting show the proposed “submerged control structure” will be 270m offshore at Nineteen Avenue.

The artificial reef will be built out of rock boulders, about 160m long and 80m in width. In briefings, surfers have been told the structure is in two parts with its crest about 1.5m below the water level and 80m long.

Gold Coast World Surfing Reserve chairman Andrew McKinnon said the bottom part of the structure was flat but the second part would be on an ocean.

“We have a foundation level then a second tier which shapes back toward the ocean. Hopefully it will be a right-toleft wave like an A-frame peak,” he said.

“It’s halfway between the shoreline and shore break and then within the natural Palm incline towards the Beach reef. People rarely surf out on the reef unless it’s a massive swell.

“There is no guarantee on this. We’re all hopeful it will work. It’s a great combination if it can protect the beach and create a great wave.”

Unlike the Narrowneck experiment in the late 1990s, which failed when sand bags burst, the Palm Beach project will use boulders, take at least three months to build and by this time next year lead the way on technology for artificial reefs.

Council transport and infrastructure committee chairwoman Pauline Young said the project represented “good value for money” and would be watched “around the world”.