Coastal conditions
Tweed Sand Bypassing closely monitors coastal conditions such as the tides and waves. The wave climate is monitored by The Queensland Government and the tides by the NSW Government. Details of each monitoring activity are described below.
Tides
The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) through the Manly Hydraulics Laboratory (MHL) undertakes tidal data analysis for the TRESBP. This work has been undertaken since 2000 to determine if there are any major changes in tidal behaviour of the estuary due to the sand bypassing operations. The study consists of a tidal harmonics analysis for three locations on the Eastern Australia coastline: two in northern NSW and one on the Sunshine Coast in Qld:
- Letitia 2A (Tweed River)
- Coffs Harbour
- Mooloolaba
The latest report can be accessed via the link below:
Tweed Sand Bypass Tidal Analysis 2022/23
Previous tidal analysis repots can be found in the archive.
Live ocean tide data for the project area can be accessed via MHL or the Queensland Government.
Waves
The Queensland Government carries out wave monitoring on behalf of the TRESBP. There are two permanent wave buoys in the project area:
- Tweed Heads – located in approximately 22 m water depth, in place since 1995
- Tweed offshore – located in approximately 60 m water depth, in place since 2020
For more information about the Queensland wave buoy network and the instrumentation used please visit their Wave Monitoring site.
Annual wave climate summary reports from the wave recording of Tweed Heads and Brisbane Waverider buoy sites are published by Queensland Government. See the link below for the latest summary or visit the archive for previous summaries:
Tweed Heads and Brisbane wave climate annual summary 2021-2022