Gold Coast Seaway

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The Gold Coast Seaway or Southport Seaway is the main navigation entrance from the Pacific Ocean into the Gold Coast Broadwater and southern Moreton Bay and is one of Australia’s most significant coastal engineering projects. It is located at the northern end of the Southport Spit. The Southport Bar had been a very dangerous entrance until 1986 when the Gold Coast Seaway was constructed. There are now two rock walls to stablise the position of the entrance and also the world's first permanent sand bypassing system.

It is a popular diving and fishing location and also many surfers and body boarders regularly paddle across the seaway on their boards from the mainland to South Stradbroke Island. Popular suring sites include the Sandpumping Jetty on the mainland and the sandpumping outlets on South Stradbroke Island known as TOS (The other side).

The sandpumping system currently delivers all sand that arrives at the Gold Coast Seaway across the entrance and into the World Heritage listed Moreton Bay Marine Park. The Gold Coast Shoreline Management Plan is reviewing this practice and examining the concept of Island Welding to determine if 16% of the sand (80,000 cubic meters per year) can be sustainably recycled to Surfers Paradise.