7.6

Tweed River 7.6
The role of the local community in managing the Sand dune area is to conserve the barrier and to look after the soil. They must also check up with the soil conservation service of NSW for any advice and assistance in managing the coastal dunes.

The sand barrier is important to the local community of Stuarts point because they need the barrier so their tourism and fishing industries can survive, they also need the barrier for protection of their homes.

There is primary, secondary and Tertiary species of plants on a sand dune, grassers and creepers belong to the Primary species, shrubs and short-lived trees live in the secondary species and Long-lived trees live in the Tertiary species.

Vegetation is vital in stabilising a sand dune system because the vegetation acts as a shield for sand that stops wind erosion from occuring. The plants also act as a shelter for beach animals to live in.

Cattle grazing, caused the plants that inhabited the beach to be taken/eaten away and therefore the sand had no protection from the wind and therefore the sand dunes were eroded by wind erosion.

The sand dune area would have decreased in size after the action of cattle grazing. The geographical processes that would have been altered as a result of cattle grazing were Longshore drift and sand migration would have occured.The groups involved in the rehabilitation program were the Department of Land, the Department of Public Works, the Macleay Shire council, and the soil conservation service of New South Wales were established in the aim to stabilise the Dune systems.
The stages involved in the managment program undertaken to re-establish the coastal vegetation were: Build a samll fordune 1.8 metres high, a dune-forming fence constructed to help trap wind-blown sand and establish the foredune, foredune then stabilised by spinifex and miram grass.





The Tweed River entrace Sand bypassing project, located in Tweed Heads, NSW. The government transported sand to the tweed river beach and dredged the beach. They extended the breakwaters so longshore drift did not clog up the southern side of the beach.