Urgent dredging underway to save disappearing Queensland beach

Dredging begins at Moore Park Beach to combat severe erosion In short: Dredging has started to reshape Moore Park Creek following severe erosion. Experts have raised questions about long-term solutions to saving disappearing beaches. What's next? The council has received a grant to develop a coastal erosion management plan. Dredging is underway to save a disappearing regional Queensland beach, but there are questions about its long-term viability and the impacts of increasingly powerful weather events. At Moore Park Beach, 400 kilometres north of Brisbane, 5 metres of the foreshore has washed away since Tropical Cyclone Alfred hit in early 2025. Another major flood event in March this year exacerbated the situation. The extent of the transformation is striking. The mouth of Moore Park Creek migrated about 200 metres north during the flood, prompting the Bundaberg Regional Council to take urgent action. Mayor Helen Blackburn said the council had been working with engineers to decide on appropriate measures. "A dredge will be closing one part of the creek mouth and then opening up a different section to allow for the creek to create its own mouth a little further to the south," she said. "This dredge will also take additional sand and nourish Moore Park Beach where the erosion has occurred." Cr Blackburn said the appropriate government permits to carry out dredging work had been granted. It is hoped the safety fencing will be removed in time for Christmas. Geographer and Sunshine Coast University associate professor Javier Leon said the council needed to consider longer-term solutions for the community. "I think there needs to be short-term solutions that could include realigning the mouth, for example, but we also should be focusing on medium to long-term solutions because this is not stopping anytime soon. If anything, it might get worse as the decades go on," Dr Leon said. "It's very site-specific. For example, a few years ago, the study came out looking at changes in the shoreline around Australia and it showed that 50 per cent are eroding and 50 per cent are accreting, so there's no consistent signal that we can take just yet." Moore Park Beach Community Association president Derek Alcorn said the erosion had deterred visitors. "The beach out at Moore Park Beach is the most precious thing we've got for tourists to come out there. It's a beautiful beach,"Mr Alcorn said. "Until they get it rectified, it's probably going to be a financial burden against the community." In 2025, the council was required to demolish the former Moore Park Beach surf club because the building was slipping into the ocean. Mr Alcorn said, apart from the development of a new surf club several hundred metres away from the old site, there were still two stages of the beachfront redevelopment to go ahead. "They're on hold at the moment until they can get things stabilised, so there's a lot more benefit to come to the community once they fix the beach," he said. From a longer-term perspective, the council has been awarded almost $140,000 in state and federal funding to develop a shoreline erosion management plan. Burnett MP Stephen Bennett said the plan required a staged approach. "That is a strategic document that needs to continue to provide solutions going forward and better inform the council, the engineers and marine scientists about what we do to continue to provide solutions to the Moore Park Beach community," Mr Bennett said.