What Swash did
- Swash personnel led the project management of numerous sustainable sediment management assessment studies, environmental risk assessment and development of dredging management and monitoring plans. This led to North Queensland Bulk Ports (NQBP) successfully attaining a Marine Park Permit and Sea Dumping Permit from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to relocate sediment to the previously approved underwater dredge material placement area.
- Swash personnel provided onsite dredging and environmental supervision during maintenance dredging (TSHD Brisbane) and bed-levelling operations.
- Swash led the consultation with the Technical Advisory and Consultative Committee and managed the environmental monitoring, including real-time water quality monitoring (and dashboard) at four nearby fringing coral islands, as well as pre- and post-dredging coral and seagrass surveys.
About the project
Maintenance dredging had not occurred at the Port of Hay Point (Qld) since 2010. Approximately 350,000 m3 of sediment had accumulated within the seven berth pockets, apron and departure channel. Around half of this amount was attributable to sediment accumulating during Tropical Cyclone Debbie in 2017.
NQBP took a structured, values-based, decision-making approach to arrive at a safe, efficient and sustainable solution for keeping the Port of Hay Point open for business. An industry best-practice Sustainable Sediment Management Assessment of Navigational Infrastructure was completed to evaluate various sediment management options for onshore or offshore placement of dredged material.
The environmental assessment found that the risks to protected areas including the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and Marine Park and sensitive habitats were predominantly low with some temporary, short-term impacts to benthic habitat possible.
In 2019, following receipt of state and Commonwealth (Marine Park and Sea Dumping Permit) approvals, maintenance dredging was successfully undertaken at the Port of Hay Point in compliance with all approval conditions.
Dredging volume
The Hay Point 2019 dredging project had a dredging volume of 353,000 m3.
