Stage two of the TS Onslow Naval Cadets Shoreline Management Project has successfully been completed.

This community-driven project on the northern Pumicestone Passage at Golden Beach aims to repair and prevent erosion of the foreshore and enhance fish habitat using ‘soft engineering’ measures.

This community-driven project on Pumicestone Passage aims to repair and prevent erosion of the foreshore and enhance fish habitat. 

These measures include planting mangroves and stabilising foredune species with biodegradable coir logs, potato starch matrix sheets, and reef star modules.

Members of Take Action for Pumicestone Passage (TAPP), led by Ken Mewburn, installed the coir logs in fish-scale shaped rows in sand dredged by the Sunshine Coast Council. This design proved successful in stabilising the sand for mangrove establishment in stage one of the project. To further stabilise the sand, the bioplastic BESE-Elements matrix developed by Bureau Waardenburg (an organisation in the Netherlands) was fixed between the fish-scale shapes.

In and between the BESE sheets, members of Bunya Bunya Country Aboriginal Corporation planted 500 red and grey mangrove seedlings propagated at their mangrove nursery at Bli Bli from seed locally sourced in Bells Creek.

To reduce the risk of wind-wave impact on the mangrove seedlings, a string of reef star modules was installed along the toe of the slope which will hopefully further enhance the fish habitat provided by the mangroves with the addition of shellfish. TAPP members also planted 400 native groundcovers and shrubs to stabilise the bank behind the mangroves.

This project was made possible through funding support from the National Landcare Program, the Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science Sustainability Grant, and the Caloundra Power Boat Club.