Artificial reefs for coastal protection

In the period leading up to 2014, residents of Ramblers Road were increasingly concerned about loss of foreshore land and the impacts they were seeing on their properties: including coastal flooding of properties and dwellings during storm tide events.

Many attempts to reduce erosion on the beach with sand bagging, fencing and other ‘soft’ engineering had very limited success. Traditional sea walls can negatively impact the beach, marine ecosystem and sand dune ecosystem. Instead, it was suggested that an offshore reef would be better suited. We investigated the artificial reefs installed in the area to understand why and how these projects have been successful.