The Gold Coast: From Sand Crisis to Superbank

Photo: Jeremiah Klein

Australians love their beaches—and it’s easy to see why. They have more than 10,000 sandy escapes to choose from, more than any other country on earth. Most lie in beautiful climates, making beaches central to Australia’s cultural identity, lifestyle, and economy. In fact, 87% of Australians live within 30 miles of the coast. It’s no wonder they lead the world in beach management practices.

Australia leads the way in public access, marine protected networks, and safeguarded coastal zones. They were also the first country to apply National and World Surfing Reserve status to their sacred breaks, a Save The Waves idea that has since gone global.

But it’s their record of sand management that’s truly instructive for coastal management bodies worldwide. Australians are no strangers to coastal erosion—or to balancing the competing needs of their coastal culture: navigational access, protection of infrastructure and private property, cherished beaches, and sacred surf breaks.

To their credit, Australians consider all of these priorities. But striking a balance among them was the greatest challenge. That was the goal of the Tweed River Bypass System—the sand-engine machine responsible for creating what has become Australia’s most renowned surf spot: the Superbank.

Photo: Andrew Sheild

When Sand Became the Issue

The Gold Coast is a city in Queensland made up of a dozen coastal villages and nearly 70 inland suburbs. Coolangatta sits at its southern end, just north of the Tweed River, which marks the border between Queensland and New South Wales.

Where the Tweed River meets the coast, it flows into a large estuary system lined with small boat marinas and harbors. In the 1950s and early ’60s, boating and fishing drove trade in the region. But navigating the shifty, sand-choked Tweed River Inlet was risky. Waves could—and often did—topple boats.

So in 1962, both states agreed to extend the inlet’s jetties (known as training walls) 400 yards offshore to keep the entrance safe and sand-free.

The plan worked: boat passage became safer, and as an unforeseen bonus, waves at Duranbah improved dramatically thanks to wave rebound off the new jetty. Within months, Duranbah became home to a reliable supply of A-frame wedges.

But on the other side of Point Danger, Snapper Rocks, Rainbow Bay, Greenmount, and Kirra were cut off from their natural sand supply, and their beaches began to erode. After several major cyclone seasons in 1967, 1970, 1971, and 1974 (which also delivered legendary surf), the natural dunes were gone, and coastal roads and property were at risk.

First Attempt Fixes

Fortunately, beach-loving Australians quickly recognized the threat, its root cause, and the need to replace the natural flow of sand cut off at the Tweed. In 1972, the groin at Kirra was added to preserve sand flow.

Before 1972, Kirra was already a fun wave. But the groin transformed it from a playful point break into a ruler-edged, sand-spitting tube—surfing’s new crown jewel of the Gold Coast.

Soon, both the waves and surfers of the Gold Coast were drawing international attention. When developers proposed a huge marina in the late 1970s that threatened Kirra, the surfing community mobilized. Boardriders, lifesavers, and surf media outlets brought worldwide attention to the issue.

Developers tried three times between the late ’70s and early ’90s, wrapping ongoing coastal resilience concerns into their pitches to property owners and businesses. But an emboldened surfing community flexed its own economic muscle. By the mid-1990s, the economic value of surf breaks was undeniable to local and state officials. The marina plan was shelved for good, replaced with a long-term strategy to protect beaches, waves, property, and infrastructure—while still addressing the Tweed Inlet’s dredging needs.

Sand, Pumps, Pipes, and Serendipity

Gold Coast sand strategy.

The solution was the Tweed River Sand Bypass System: a permanent network of pumps and pipes designed to move sand away from the inlet and deliver it to nearby beaches in need. This replaced costly episodic nourishment projects (more than six were required between 1974 and 1995) with a consistent system that restored natural sand flow to the southern Gold Coast.

Surfers initially saw it as a win for Kirra, believing it would keep their beloved break healthy. But what followed was more than anyone expected.

Within six months of the pumps starting, surfers at Snapper Rocks noticed their rides extending into Rainbow Bay as sandbars fattened. Six months later, waves were peeling through Greenmount. By the end of 2002, surfers were calling this remarkable new sandbar the Superbank.

Meanwhile, the inlet remained secure and coastal property was protected by wide buffers of sand.

The Superbank quickly gained fame as another man-made surfing miracle. But trade-offs came: crowds exploded, Greenmount morphed from a beginner wave into a high-speed racetrack, and Kirra—the very wave they aimed to protect—was buried under too much sand. Some locals even joked the beaches had become so wide that reaching the water was like “crossing the Sahara.”

Still, the Sand Bypass System proved a massive success. The Gold Coast’s Gross Regional Product surged, surf- and beach-related tourism boomed, and today the project has a Net Present Value of more than $50 million—right in line with its investment goals.

The success at Snapper inspired other projects: a bypass system near Surfers Paradise to protect northern beaches, and an artificial reef at Palm Beach to shield a vulnerable shoreline.

The reef, completed in 2019, was designed to diffuse wave energy offshore, allowing sand to accumulate onshore. While creating a surfable wave was only a secondary goal, it has produced rideable moments and performs better than any other artificial reef completed to date. Most importantly, it’s protecting the beach—and it got a serious test during Cyclone Alfred in March 2025.

Sand replenishment, post TC Alfred. Photos: Andrew Sheild

Alfred, a massive and prolonged swell event, stripped more than four million cubic yards of sand from Gold Coast beaches. At first, the Superbank was firing and lighting up social media while buffering the shoreline. But as the swell persisted, the sandbars drained, beaches narrowed, and erosion set in. So much sand shifted that Kirra briefly re-emerged in its classic form, thrilling old-timers for a few days.

Although the WSL had to move its annual event from Snapper to Burleigh Heads, property and infrastructure damage was minimal. Thanks to the Gold Coast’s pre-storm sand balance—and the bypass systems, which were immediately activated post-storm—beaches rebounded within months, not years. Even the Palm Beach reef passed its test, sparing the fragile shoreline it was built to protect.

The Most Measured Coastline on Earth

In 2016, the city launched the Gold Coast Surf Management Plan to preserve and enhance iconic surf breaks while balancing other public beach uses. Data gathering is central to this effort, with Surfline playing a key role through its state-of-the-art camera network equipped with new sensing tools known as Surfline Coastal Intelligence (SCI).

These cameras double as sensors, detecting everything from crowd density and wave activity to erosion patterns and coastal hazards. Combined with decades of archived coastal imagery, officials now have powerful tools for research. Griffith University scientists are already leveraging the data to track trends, analyze hazards, and drill deep into specific issues.

Today, the Gold Coast is the most monitored and measured coastline in the world. Every day, officials track wins, losses, setbacks, and successes. This commitment to measurement, stewardship, and planning has made the region a model for coastal management worldwide…This is what good coastal management looks like.