Australia Weather News

A breakthrough at Bribie Island that caused damage to parts of the Sunshine Coast shoreline has officially closed as the final push of sand reconnected the Island barrier overnight.

The breakthrough was caused by large swells generated by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred early this year.

About 20 Hall Contracting personnel were working around the clock to deliver the project. 

Jen Kettleton-Butler, a volunteer with the Pumicestone Passage Catchment Management Board (PPCMB), said it was a momentous moment for Caloundra.

"The tide has been turned overnight and I don't mean that lightly," Ms Kettleton-Butler said. 

"That Alfred breakthrough started on February 27 this year, and I was standing on the Island the moment it broke through by sheer coincidence.

"It widened to about 450 metres in the intervening period, and it became a real threat to those low-lying areas opposite and adjacent, with higher tides and open ocean wave energy hitting and absolutely wreaking havoc on the shoreline."

Coastal barrier

The Island experienced several breakthroughs since Cyclone Seth in 2022.

The northern tip of the 34-kilometre-long island plays a crucial role in protecting Golden Beach in the Caloundra region from severe coastal events.

The emergency works fixed what is referred to as the "second breakthrough" with further work to be undertaken on the original breakthrough, which occurred in 2022. 

"That [Cyclone] Seth breakthrough will be maintained for the time being," Ms Kettleton-Butler said. 

"They're going to build up — between the Alfred and Seth breakthrough — a mountain of sand that is going to be between 80 to 100 metres wide and 3 metres higher than the highest tide level.

"It's wider and stronger than what our barrier Island has been in that section for decades."

Cyclone season

The work forms part of the state government's $20 million emergency works package announced in June and is being undertaken by coastal dredging company Hall Contracting.  

More than 250,000 cubic metres of sand has been pumped to fill the breakthroughs.

Caloundra Coast Guard Commander Roger Pearce said it was critical the work was completed before the beginning of the cyclone season. 

"Residents will be sleeping better tonight, it's given them — probably a 50-metre — soon to be 90-metre sand buffer on the Island as we move the pumping north," Commander Pearce said.

"That will give them complete protection from the open ocean."

Commander Pearce said stage two work would take place further south. 

"It's in what they call Factory Gutter, and it's another area which is extremely thin and we get washovers at high tide," he said. 

"Stage three [work] will be tacked on just to the north of where we finished last night, which will connect up to the Bribie bar.

"Stage four is the area referred to as the mini-bar, which allows a passage from the normal Bribie bar into the northern end of Pumicestone Passage because, at the moment, coast guard can't get our vessels over that bar."

Local member for Caloundra Kendall Morton said the emergency work was a major milestone in the ongoing project.

"This has been a known issue and a genuine concern for the people of Caloundra for over two decades," Ms Morton said. 

"This is a huge step in the right direction, and the Pumicestone Passage is such an important waterway for so many reasons.

"What we've managed to achieve by putting the Island back together is to protect this natural, beautiful waterway."