Take dredged sand ashore

Forty years ago one could walk off the grass onto the beach at Ettalong with no ugly rocks as obstacles.

Also, along the foreshore to the ferry jetty, there were sand banks where one could go prawning and catch sea horses.

The beach was regenerated by dredging and pumping sand on shore.

The other time was when the now Mantra resort was built and the sand from the underground car park was dumped on the beach adjacent.

Where has the sand gone?

One has only to look a bit further up Brisbane Water to see where the trouble starts, around the Rip Bridge area.

Over time, the main channel has moved from the north side to the south side and the Hardy's Bay area is silting up due to lack of flow.

At present, the main channel is now located on the south side past the ferry wharf sweeping around close to shore to exit at the Ettalong Point area bypassing Half Tide Rocks.

The result is no flow over the rock barrage, thus the channel is silting up fast because there isn't enough tide flow to clear it - hence the dredging taking place.

In my opinion, the dredging won't succeed because one good southerly blow and it's back where it started.

Perhaps our council could arrange for the dredged sand to be taken ashore, washed and dried for sale as building supply then we may get something for the money being wasted on the project.

I have witnessed the Half Tide Rocks boat ramp cleared by a front-end loader of sand back to the concrete in the morning.

By afternoon, the sea had recovered it with sand back to where it was before they started.

The same will happen with dredging.

Letter, 25 Mar 2010 Andy Palmer, Umina