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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-26 Daily Xml
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Beach Management

The Hon. S.L. GAME (15:06): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Attorney-General, representing the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, regarding beach management and sand dredging.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: The state government's Department for Environment and Water conducted an operational dredging trial between October and November 2024 and is now due to evaluate the trial data and report its findings. Meanwhile, quarried, washed, sterile sand is currently being trucked to West Beach, aimed at combating erosion along Adelaide's coastline. More than 100,000 cubic metres of this quarry sand was delivered to West Beach between July and December 2024 and a further 100,000 cubic metres has also been delivered earlier this year.

Having commenced on Monday 13 October 2025, a purported additional 45,000 cubic metres of quarry sand is to be delivered. According to media reports, the Save West Beach Sand Group and others say the quarry sand is the wrong size and is being dumped without reference to any architectural landscape design or science-based coastal model, causing it to wash away quickly. My questions to the minister are:

1. Can the government explain why the department's report is yet to be released? When will it be released and will it be released publicly?

2. In reference to recommendation 2.2 of the department's Adelaide Beach Management Review report, will the government explain why it won't use compatible sand from Adelaide's northern beaches like Semaphore and Largs Bay?

3. Can the government provide the price per cubic metre it is paying for the quarried sand to be delivered to West Beach and what it would cost per cubic metre to deliver sand from Adelaide's northern beaches?

4. Will the $14 million committed to in the state budget be used to continue trucking quarry sand to West Beach or will any of it be allocated towards more sustainable long-term coastal protection solutions, such as sand recycling infrastructure?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Deputy Premier, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:08): I thank the honourable member for her question. In relation to the report, as I have answered previously in this place, I will seek advice on that report. In relation to questions about compatible sand, I am happy to go and check, but it's my understanding that quarry sand—as I think the honourable member indicated, I think in the 2024-25 financial year there was something like 200,000 cubic metres of sand that was put onto the West Beach area to build up the beach to combat erosion.

As I understand it—but I am happy to go and check to see if there is anything further that can be added—there are requirements in relation to the type of sand, the grain size and so forth to make sure it is as compatible as possible. In relation to the ongoing use of quarry sand, I think it is fair to say there is an ambition—and that is the whole purpose of the work that has been going on—to find another solution, other than quarry sand, that in some way recycles the sand in that northern beach cell.

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