Adelaide Beach Management 1836–2025

Abstract

The 28km long Adelaide coast consists of a near continuous sandy beach and dune system, crossed by a few small outlets and terminating at the northern Adelaide Outer Harbor. Since European settlement in 1836 the dunes have been largely leveled and developed, six jetties built across the beach-nearshore, the outlets have been trained with breakwaters, two breakwaters protect marina developments and much of the backbeach has been armored with seawalls, usually following erosion events. After more than a century of ad hoc beach management, a review of the coast in the 1960s lead to the establishment of a Coast Protection Board in 1972 and the beginning of coordinated management of the entire system. Sand recycling and nourishment has become the major management tool, together with better designed seawalls, dune restoration and management, improved water quality and beach monitoring. The history of management of the Adelaide coast provides an excellent example of the transformation in coastal management that has occurred in Australia and elsewhere, as solely hard engineering has given way to a range of options both hard and soft, all designed to suit the coastal system in question.