Barwon Coast Update – April 26, 2018

With the end of the peak tourist season, we are now focussing on other management activities on the Barwon Coast.

BUILDING AND IMPROVING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

A number of construction works will soon be underway:

The Surf Beach Complex – the Dunes Restaurant and the Ocean Grove Surf Lifesaving Club (OGSLSC), will be demolished to make way for the construction of a new complex.

The OGSLSC are establishing a temporary site within a section of grass car park immediately behind the main beach toilet block to conduct their activities while the redevelopment project is in progress. Pedestrians and cyclists should keep a look out for signage as the main beach path will be diverted around the building site until early 2019.

The Barwon Heads Sea Wall was first built in the 1930s and time, tide and storms have had their impact.

In 2016 a section of the wall was replaced. The southern section of the old sea wall is scheduled to be replaced in June this year.

The Bluff will be accessible via an alternate pedestrian path whilst the works are underway.

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

At this time of year migratory birds are commencing their journey home.

In particular you may see Short-tailed Shearwater fledglings begin their first migration north. These birds sometimes lose their way and land anywhere along our coastline, weak and exhausted. Please keep dogs well clear to give them a chance at survival.

We are undertaking a fox control program in the sand dunes along 13th Beach to assist habitat rehabilitation. The fox is a pest that both kills fauna and spreads weeds. Signage is placed at entry points to the coast and baits are buried in remote, fenced off sections of the sand dunes.

COASTAL MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

Thank you to everyone who filled out the Federation University Australia survey which is part of a broader study on coastal management.

The survey is now closed. Over 1500 surveys were completed – a great community effort!

Researchers are now busy analysing the data and will come back to Barwon Coast with a summary report and some suggested ways forward to better manage our coastline.

We look forward to sharing this with you in July 2018.