Adelaide Coast Protection

Documents for download from this site are in PDF format and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. The reader is free and can be downloaded from the Adobe website.

Building sandcastles near Brighton jetty

Public submissions form for the Semaphore Park Trial Breakwater consultation is available here. Due by 9 November 2007

The management of Adelaide's beaches is shared between local councils and the State Government. Councils are responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the beach and coastal facilities – they are essentially the 'housekeepers of the coastal zone' (Harvey & Caton 2003). The State Government, on the other hand, is responsible for the long-term maintenance of the city's coastal environment and assets. This is achieved in the following ways:

• by maintaining sand on the beach for recreation and leisure activities
• by protecting properties and infrastructure along the foreshore from erosion and storm damage
• by conserving heritage, cultural, environmental and ecological values.

The Coast Protection Board is the statutory authority responsible for managing Adelaide's coastline and administering the Coast Protection Act 1972. Since 1972, the Coast Protection Board's strategy for maintaining Adelaide's beaches and protecting the foreshore has been to replenish beaches with sand and build seawalls where necessary. The Coast Protection Board provides grants to local councils to conduct activities including beach replenishment, dune rehabilitation, construction of hard protection works, where necessary, and maintenance of existing structures. For more information see Coast Protection Board.

Beach users at Seacliff (Photo: J Kamma)

The State Government recently announced an innovative new strategy for managing Adelaide's beaches called Adelaide's Living Beaches: A Strategy for 2005–2025. The strategy is based on the examination of the benefits and costs of a range of strategies along with the results of a series of modelling and feasibility studies and input from the community. By using pipeline transfer systems to recycle sand, and integrating sand bypassing at harbours with beach management, the strategy will reduce not only the cost of managing the Adelaide coastline but also the impact of coastal management on beach users and seaside residents. Structures such as groynes and breakwaters will only be used in a few critical locations because of the impact they have on coastal amenity. Coarse sand will be added to the system from external sources to counter the ongoing loss of dune volume and beach width caused by sea level rise and other factors.

The Adelaide coastline, 1992 (Photo: SATC)

Successful management of Adelaide's beaches requires a detailed understanding of local coastal environments and processes. The Coast Protection Board has a regular monitoring and evaluation program (see Beach Monitoring & Evaluation). It is also necessary to understand the impacts of humans on the coast, such as the effects of poor water quality on seagrass meadows and seafloor stability (see Factors Affecting the Adelaide Coast). The Board is one of the stakeholders involved in the Adelaide Coastal Waters Study, which was established by the EPA in 2001 in response to ongoing concerns about the decline in coastal water quality. For more information see the Adelaide Coastal Waters Study page on the EPA website: http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/epa/acws.html.

Reference: Harvey N & Caton B 2003, Coastal Management in Australia, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.