Dredging begins to restore eroded Moore Park Beach shoreline

Dredging has begun at Moore Park Beach in Queensland after severe erosion damaged the shoreline and altered the mouth of Moore Park Creek. The beach, about 400 kilometres north of Brisbane, lost around five metres of foreshore after Tropical Cyclone Alfred in early 2025. A major flood in March worsened the damage and moved the creek mouth approximately 200 metres north.

Bundaberg Regional Council is using a dredge to close one section of the creek mouth and open another farther south. Mayor Helen Blackburn said the work would also remove additional sand and use it to nourish the eroded part of Moore Park Beach. The council has received the permits required for the work and hopes safety fencing can be removed before Christmas.

The immediate project is intended to stabilise the beach and restore access, but experts have questioned how long the intervention will last. Javier Leon, a geographer at the University of the Sunshine Coast, said realigning the creek mouth could be a short-term measure. He urged the council to pursue medium- and long-term options because erosion could worsen over coming decades as weather events become more powerful.

Community association president Derek Alcorn said the erosion had discouraged visitors and created a financial burden. The former surf club had to be demolished in 2025 after the building began slipping into the ocean. A replacement surf club is planned several hundred metres away, but other beachfront redevelopment stages remain on hold until the area is stabilised.

The council has received almost $140,000 in state and federal funding to prepare a shoreline erosion management plan. Burnett MP Stephen Bennett said the plan would use a staged approach to guide future decisions by the council, engineers and marine scientists.