New Brighton Dune Stabilisation Project

Wire fencing with wood posts of a revegetated beach dune.

In October 2017, Council completed a program of beach scraping at New Brighton beach. The primary objective was to create a larger sand dune for a buffer against coastal erosion during storm events. 

The success of the 2017 program will be subject to the severity and frequency of future storm events post scraping episodes. 

Since these project works, Council focused efforts at New Brighton on fencing of the dune to prevent public trampling combined with an intensive revegetation program. This proved successful in retaining sand volumes, limiting dune blowouts from trampling, and establishing stabilising ground cover plants. 

What is beach scraping?

Beach ‘scraping’ is a useful and cost-effective technique for rebuilding dunes or restoring beaches. This technique is also known as “Nature Assisted Beach Enhancement”.(PDF, 95KB)

Scraping accelerates the natural process of dune re-building by moving sand from the intertidal area of the beach and placing it on the dunes.

Beach scraping as a coastal management or adaptation strategy

Beach scraping may provide a useful coastal adaptation method in the short to medium-term to reduce the risk to property and infrastructure from coastal hazards.

It will reduce severity but not eliminate the threat to infrastructure and private property from a ‘design’ storm event (100-year Average Occurrence Interval).

Beach scraping is unlikely to provide a long-term coastal adaptation solution to address coastal erosion and shoreline recession, especially under rising sea level threat.

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