THE ROHDE NIELSEN trailing suction hopper dredge Trud R is hard at work in waters off Queensland’s Gold Coast, rainbowing sand from offshore to replace that lost in Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Trud R left the Clarence River on 21 March and entered Southport the following day, before beginning replenishment work on 4 April at the Gold Coast. It is due to move on to Main Beach and Narrowneck.
The Gold Coast City Council estimates four million cubic metres of sand was swept away from the city’s beaches by TC Alfred, when the highest-ever waves to hit the coast, at 12.3 metres, were recorded.
The ABC reported that Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate had previously promised to buy a beer for everyone on the Gold Coast if 80% of the city’s beaches were not ready by Easter. At a media conference on Monday, he confirmed the deadline had been met.
However, about nine of the city’s 41 beaches stretching from Southport to Surfers Paradise remain closed due to severe scarping and residents and visitors have been warned to stay clear of the replenishment work, which is expected to take eight weeks in total.
The 1,414 GT, 75-metre LOA Trud R was built in China in 1995 at the Jiangyang Shipyard, Yangzhou and has been active as part of Rohde Nielsen’s Australian-based dredging fleet across the nation for several years, working mainly in WA, NSW, the NT and Queensland.
