New barrier to protect Geoffrey Bay foreshore

Townsville City Council is replacing sections of temporary fencing along Geoffrey Bay with a barrier to prevent vehicles driving on the foreshore.

The new barrier is a lower, green material barrier that will be installed along with turtle nesting signage to prevent visitors from driving along the foreshore and damaging native vegetation and known turtle nesting sites.

Council is collaborating with Arcadia Coastcare and the Magnetic Island Community Development Association (MICDA) to complete the project.

Community Health, Safety and Environmental Sustainability Committee chairperson Maurie Soars said the installation of the barrier would be complemented with a dune restoration project and coastal plantings.

“The first part of installing this new barrier is to replace a section of the red temporary mesh that we put up late last year to prevent vehicles from driving and camping in the area and planting coastal vines, grasses and some casuarina trees,” Cr Soars said.

“We’ll be working with the Arcadia Coastcare on the planting, and the Magnetic Island Community Development Association will assist with putting up the barrier – which will be a 40cm-high, green material fence.

“Arcadia Coastcare will then adopt the site and maintain the new vegetation with regular weeding and watering of the area, particularly through the dry season as the plants establish themselves.”

Cr Soars said the barrier is important for protecting the foreshore from further damage.

“Unfortunately, there was a spate of incidents that saw rubbish being left all over the beach, and damage from fires and vehicles, so we installed the red mesh to prevent this from happening again,” he said.

“Our plan is to replace all of the temporary red mesh, install turtle nesting signage to discourage people from driving along the beach and we are investigating using bollards at the eastern end of the bay to create a parking area.

“This will allow us to return the environmental reserve into a pedestrian-only area with visitors accessing the beach via that parking area.

“Geoffrey Bay is made up of sensitive coastal habitat and vegetation and is a known turtle nesting area, so it’s really important that we do what we can to protect it from being damaged.”