New Geographe marina entrance opened

The reconfiguration of groynes at Port Geographe has reached a major milestone with the opening of a new channel to enter the marina.

The re-aligned entrance was opened on Tuesday, 70 metres east of the original channel, which has been closed.

Department of Transport navigational safety and moorings manager Mark Briant said skippers should exercise caution in the area.

“Skippers need to be aware of the new arrangements at Port Geographe and operate with extra caution when navigating the area, ” he said.

“A series of new navigation markers have been positioned to guide skippers using the new channel and yellow buoys are in place to highlight special exclusion zones.”

The old channel was closed following the partial completion of the new western breakwater, which is central to the $28.15 million reconfiguration to improve the flow of sand and seagrass wrack along the coast.

In the next month work will be undertaken to connect the landward end of the new western breakwater, completing the structure.

Port Geographe Action Group chairman Peter Maccora said he was pleased with progress so far.

“It’s been our push to get them to finish the groyne reconfiguration before the winter storms which usually arrive in May and it looks like they’re on schedule to do that, ” he said.

“Our only concern is where they’re going to get the extra sand that’s needed for the western beach.

“They were going to take some from further west but we felt that could cause problems so we said they should look externally.”

Mr Maccora said a number of options were being considered, but a possible solution was to take sand from the Wonnerup estuary which required dredging anyway.

He said the majority of Port Geographe residents were “understanding” about disruption caused by the works.

“Everyone is under the impression that we’ll have to make do, knowing this will be the last time we will have trucks and machinery on the beach to such a large scale, ” he said.

“Most people are understanding in that regard because we know it’s coming to an end.”

For more information about the new channel, visit www.transport.wa.gov.au/tntm or call 1300 863 308.