Cyclone Alfred put the Gold Coast’s coastal resilience system to the test, sparking widespread media discussion on beach erosion, recovery timelines, and coastal resilience. Over the past week, ICM’s coastal engineers have been featured on major TV, radio, and digital media outlets, providing expert insights into how the coastline is responding.
From Channel 7’s Sunrise to ABC News and national radio, ICM's Angus Jackson and Aaron Salyer explained why erosion is a natural process, how our engineered systems are protecting valuable infrastructure, and what’s next for beach recovery. Below, we’ve compiled key takeaways, expert quotes, and highlights from our media appearances.
Channel 9 News
TV Interview, 8 March 2025 | Angus Jackson joined Channel 9 News to discuss the impact of Cyclone Alfred on the Gold Coast's beaches and how the city’s coastal resilience strategies have performed under extreme conditions.
Alison Ariotti, Channel 9 News: "What is the process for people at home to understand that the beaches need to go through to fix this erosion?"
"What normally happens is an event like this is Council closes the access ways to the beach, which they've done to try and stop people getting onto the beach, and not being able to get off, because at high tide, there is no beach. There's vertical scarps with waves hitting them, and we've all seen that on TV over the last few days. Council generally then comes along and and knocks the scarps down to make them safe."
- Angus Jackson, International Coastal Management
4BC with Gary Hardgrave
Radio Interview, 11 March 2025 | Aaron Salyer joined Gary Hardgrave on 4BC Radio to discuss the Gold Coast Mayor’s plan to restore the beaches and how coastal infrastructure played a crucial role in limiting storm damage.
Gary Hardgrave, 4BC: "I know they put rock walls and groins in certain spots, that's to stop some of the prevailing currents moving sand up and down the coast. Some beaches get fuller at the expense of others and so forth. Is there any other solution that we can do or this is just it, you get a big cyclone, it's going to suck the sand out, you got to pump it back or wait for it to come back over a period of time."
"There is, but there's a couple of good points you made. So under the sand dunes along the Gold Coast, pretty much for the majority of the stretch, there's a buried rock wall (terminal seawall). So that was put in after those cyclonic events of the 60s and 70s where, houses were falling in, and roads were falling into the sea."
"So it really creates that, that sort of last backstop, for worst case events like this one. Thankfully for the majority of the Gold Coast, dunes are built in front/on top of that rock wall, which are actually artificial dunes, or 'urban dunes', so they're put there by design to create this natural buffer between the sea and that submerged rock wall. Most of the Gold Coast hasn't even exposed that worst case scenario rock wall buried under the dunes. So, for the most part the dune system really is doing its job and actually acting as a natural buffer, because what we don't see all the way up and down the Gold Coast are properties and roads falling into the sea."
- Aaron Salyer, International Coastal Management
ABC Drive with Bern Young
Radio Interview, 11 March 2025 | Angus Jackson sat down with Bern Young on ABC Gold Coast Drive to share a historical perspective on coastal engineering and how past cyclones shaped today’s Gold Coast resilience strategies.
Bern Young, ABC Gold Coast: "My guest is Angus Jackson. Now he's an executive coastal engineer with International Coastal Management, his own company after being Council's coastal engineer for a very long time, and a very important time in Council's history. Some people call you the godfather of the coastal protection system that we have. And this includes things like bypassing, backpassing, dune restoration, what we've seen with the sand pumping to create the super bank at one end, world leader in artificial reefs. [...] And he reckons the beaches have well and truly passed a major stress test. with Alfred."
"The beaches are in great condition and that's not by luck. That's by good engineering. We lost our beaches in the 67 event and it took a long time to get them back. In fact, in 1967, the Gold Coast nearly went bankrupt because our beaches disappeared. That left a legacy in our DNA - we were never going to let that happen again. Today, we have seawalls, artificial reefs, and an entire system designed for events like this."
- Angus Jackson, International Coastal Management
Channel 7's Sunrise
TV Interview, 12 March 2025 | Aaron Salyer joined Matt Shirvington and Natalie Barr on Channel 7's Sunrise to explain the science behind beach erosion and how the Gold Coast is planning for a faster recovery.
Matt Shirvington, Sunrise: "What about the sand? Because so much of it has been basically washed back into the ocean. How do we get it back on the beaches?"
"The way these beach systems work is they're quite highly dynamic. Erosion is actually a natural process. So the dune systems up on the top of the beach get hit by high impact storms. Some of that sand goes out into the offshore zone, which create those offshore sandbars. Now those offshore sandbars over time will naturally start to wash back in and rebuild this naturally."
"That could be over, the course of a matter of months. It could even be, up to a couple of years to fully recover. But here on the Gold Coast, we just can't wait that long. We're too dependent on this beach, not only as a soft infrastructure, but as an asset. To the community. So the Gold Coast Council is going to step in hurry that along by doing things like bringing in a big dredge to actually shift that sand from offshore onto the onshore zone."
- Aaron Salyer, International Coastal Management
Sydney 2SM with Chris Smith
Radio Interview, 13 March 2025 | Angus Jackson joined Chris Smith on Sydney’s 2SM Radio to discuss where the sand has gone - and how Gold Coast’s innovative sand management policies ensure beach recovery.
"We've got policies in place, so any dredging in the broadwater, that sand goes to the beach. The Gold Coast beaches are incredibly managed. So at the moment, we pump sand across from the Tweed River from New South Wales into Queensland."
"And then that sand travels along the Gold Coast and at the northern end, at the seaway, the Nerang River, sands pump northwards to continue its route. Times like this they turn on the tap and they pump back south to surfers paradise. So once that pipeline has been restored, there'll be a recirculation of sand."
- Angus Jackson, International Coastal Management
Channel 7's Sunrise with Sam Mac
TV Interview, 14 March 2025 | Aaron Salyer joined Sam Mac on Channel 7's Sunrise to check in on how the Gold Coast beaches were holding up post-cyclone.
Sam Mac, Sunrise: "We wanted to check in on the Gold Coast. Of course there's been lots of discussion and lots of pictures floating around vision of the scarping that's been happening. As you can see, it's a, it's around a three metre drop. [...] This must be the busiest time in your life."
"Yeah, absolutely. But to me, this isn't as bad as it looks. For most people when they see this, they go start freaking out. But for me, I look at this and I go It's not so much about what was lost, it's about what wasn't lost. Look behind us. All of the buildings are intact, all the roads are there. The beach is doing its job, it's taking the brunt of the force of that cyclone."
- Aaron Salyer, International Coastal Management
ABC News with Nate Byrne
TV Interview, 14 March 2025 | Aaron Salyer joined Nate Byrne on ABC News Breakfast to explain how Gold Coast beaches are designed to recover after extreme weather events.
Nate Byrne, ABC News Breakfast: "Okay, first of all, talk to me about what's happened here. Courtesy of Alfred. There must be just I can't even fathom the volume of sand that's missing."
"Yes. Millions of cubic meters of sand have been eroded from the beach. But erosion is a natural process. Erosion happens at all kinds of times. But, in these kind of extreme events big wave energy hits the top of the dunes, takes out that sand and actually takes it offshore into the sort of offshore zone, which creates those offshore sandbars. What happens then is that naturally breaks the wave energy. And over time, those sandbars will actually start moving back in."
"So this is a natural process. What's exciting for me as a coastal engineer is to see that, we had 12 metre waves out here just a few days ago and it's only eroded, slightly, not even all the way back to the worst case scenario here. The Gold Coast has been really prepping for this moment for decades."
- Aaron Salyer, International Coastal Management
ABC Gold Coast Mornings with Sarah Cumming
TV Interview, 14 March 2025 | Angus Jackson joined Sarah Cumming on ABC Gold Coast Mornings to explain the science behind sand dredging and beach nourishment.
Sarah Cumming, ABC: "Tell us about how these sand dredging barges actually work. They don't actually take the sand from the ocean and dump it on the shore. They just move it back into the surf zone. Is that right? Can you just explain how that works for us?"
"Yes, so when we were doing this back in the 1980s, we had no beaches at the southern end of the Gold Coast - just boulder walls. We needed to nourish those beaches very quickly. We were researching storm bars, which naturally move back onshore after a storm event, and we quickly recognised that if we created artificial storm bars with a dredge, nature would do the rest within six to 12 months - at about half the cost of traditional methods."
"In 2017, the Gold Coast’s last major nearshore nourishment project moved around 3 million cubic metres of sand offshore. The dredge goes out, finds a good sand source, brings it in, and if it’s a really big dredge, they ‘rainbow’ it - pumping the sand into the air so it lands in the surf zone, where waves naturally bring it up the beach."
"This method, developed by the Gold Coast City Council in 1985 when I was in charge, is now used globally. The benefit is that we don’t need pipelines on the beach - everything happens in the surf zone. And in 2017, we even designed the placement to improve the surfing conditions, so it’s a really nifty method."
- Angus Jackson, International Coastal Management
The Gold Coast Stress Test
Cyclone Alfred provided a real-world stress test of the Gold Coast’s coastal resilience framework. The engineered dune systems, seawalls, and sand bypassing measures all performed as designed, preventing major infrastructure loss and setting the coastline up for a faster recovery. At International Coastal Management (ICM), we remain at the forefront of coastal engineering solutions, working with cities and communities worldwide to develop sustainable, nature-based resilience strategies.