Beach Monitoring Project
NEXT MONITORING SESSION - TBC
Beach monitoring is a major project for the Port Fairy Coastal Group. The monitoring provides detailed information to Moyne Shire Council and State Governement Agencies for use in developing a response to erosion and predicted rises in sea level.
Every six weeks month we use a drone to accurately measure beach profiles along 4km of East Beach. The table below illustrates recent changes against historic data see here for explanation, or here for historic data.
Questions from PFCG members
PFCG doesn't monitor the beaches on Griffith's Island but I walk around it several times a week and think I have noticed big changes on the beach on the southeast side of the island recently. Even at low tide it is necessary to clamber over rocks to get from one beach to the next, and at high tide you are at risk of finding yourself ankle deep in water. I may be imagining it but I used to walk the circuit with my elderly parents 10 or 15 years ago and don't remember it being so difficult. Big chunks of vegetation seem to be breaking off weekly as shown in this photo. If anyone has old photos showing the beach and the dune I'd be interested to see if there really has been a change. See link below for Google Earth images from 2011 and 2021 and recent photos of changes to dune.
News
MOST RECENT DATA - May 2023 see more
Further information about the Victorian Coastal Monitoring Program and access to drone mapping data is available at the following link: https://www.marinemapping.org/
Sand Movement around Groins on East Beach.
The unusually low sand levels noticed in October have now recovered.
30th October 2022
30th January 2023
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Projects
Year 6 School Science project
Once or twice a term students from local primary schools join PFCG and help measure sand levels at Pea Soup and South Beach. Drones cannot be used to measure sand levels on these beaches so a laser is used to make transverse and longitudinal measurements.
The council uses the data to inform its coastal protection and rehabilitation work.
St Patrick's Primary School and Port Fairy Consolidated School are currently involved with this project
Gallery
Our collection of photographs reflect the diversity of views of our esturary and coastline.