Noosa's natural shift

Sunshine Coast Council officer David Shing, council coastal manager Denis Shaw and CR Russell Green check out the new sand-pumping facility at Noosa Main Beach.

Geoff Potter

NOOSA'S estuary and spit system is in good hands and will not become the rock-wall replica of Mooloolah River, according to councillor Russell Green.

Cr Green said the newly operational upgraded sand-shifter system for Main Beach and the stabilisation and reclamation work under way at Dog Beach would not create more problems than it fixed.

"I think for Noosa we're really starting to get a handle on those coastal processes," Cr Green said.

"Even though it's not good for man to interfere we're able to interfere in a positive way.

"The first mistakes were always made on Noosa Main Beach when they allowed building to occur there and put the initial rock walls in place."

Cr Green said predictions of having to rock-wall the river for kilometres because of interference, as suggested by Noosa Parks Association, did not seem likely.

"I don't believe that that is going to be the outcome," he said.

"I think we're still going to maintain the Noosa River system in a natural process from Munna Point all the way right up to the lakes.

"All of the information that we've been provided by the guys (the coastal systems experts) has been pretty spot-on over the years with the advice they've given us, and it certainly doesn't lead us to that (conclusion).

"We really have to re-nourish where severe erosion is occurring. We're coming up with systems to try to just assist in those natural processes."

Cr Green said the council had been able to provide a solution that "is very much a natural solution, driven by man and it's such a great outcome".

"The social wellbeing of the community is important. That's why Dog Beach and the work that's being done over there is absolutely amazing at the moment," he said.

"We've always prided ourselves in Noosa on allowing nature to have specific outcomes.

"But this estuary system, particularly the river mouth, we've just played around with it so much since the 1970s.

"It's really required intervention because nature wanted to go back to what it originally wanted to do."

Cr Green said that before intervention there was only a 30m strip of land from Dog Beach to Noosa Sound.

"We've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of council infrastructure down through there (Noosa Woods and the spit) in pathways," he said.

"They're going to be reinstated over time once the stabilisation is all finished."