Stockton Beach has been getting a welcome dumping of sand after months of meetings and decision making.
A 75-metre long dredger, Trud R, arrived in Newcastle over the weekend and has started to deposit an initial 100,000 cubic metres of amenity sand to help renourish Stockton Beach.
Sand for amenity nourishment is being sourced from the outer channel of Newcastle Harbour, then strategically placed by rainbowing, a process that involves jetting a sand slurry from the dredger into the near shore zone at the southern end of Stockton Beach. The process will be repeated up to ten times a day and the duration of the work is dependent on weather conditions.
Chair of the Stockton Community Liaison Group, Barbara Whitcher, said the community is pleased the next stage of work for Stockton’s coastline has commenced.
“It’s great to see that, at long last, additional sand is going to be placed near the beach to help prevent further erosion at Stockton,
“We’re grateful to the Federal Government and City of Newcastle for the funding provided for the first step towards long-term sand nourishment.”
Amenity sand nourishment at Stockton is being delivered by Department of Regional NSW and NSW Public Works and was made possible by a $6.2 million grant obtained by the NSW Government through the Coastal Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program, which includes $4.7 million from the Federal Government and $1.5 million from City of Newcastle.
The grant also funds the studies into viable sources of sand from the North Arm of the Hunter River and offshore sources, in addition to the environmental approvals needed for mass sand nourishment.
To further protect Stockton’s coastline until mass sand nourishment takes place, the construction of a buried protection structure at the southern end of the existing Mitchell Street seawall is underway.