Glenelg to Kingston Park
The main pump station is located at Glenelg, just north of the jetty promenade area. A submersible pump was installed at the end of the Glenelg jetty to supply seawater to the main pump station.
A total of three booster pump stations were installed in the following locations:
- in the rock seawall opposite John Miller Reserve, Whyte Street, Somerton Park.
- in the rock seawall opposite Wattle Ave Reserve, Wattle Avenue, Hove.
- in the dunes opposite Angus Neill Reserve, Young Street, Seacliff.
The booster pump stations are approximately two kilometres apart to pump the sand and seawater mixture over the seven kilometres of underground pipeline.
There are 11 discharge stations between Somerton Park and Kingston Park, three of which are co-located with the booster pump stations. Flexible pipelines, buried under the dunes or within the rock seawalls, extend from the discharge stations to the top of the beach or base of the dunes or seawall.
Sand is scraped from the beach surface in thin layers using a land plane and brought to a temporary fenced work area where it is screened to remove stones, beach wrack and other debris. It is then mixed with seawater (70% water, 30% sand) and the sand and seawater mixture is pumped southwards through the underground pipelines to the southern beaches where it is discharged at the back of the beach, at the toe of the dune or the base of seawalls. The sand settles out from the seawater forming a low, wide stable mound and the excess seawater returns to the sea.
When sand has built up at one discharge location, the sand and seawater mixture is redirected to another discharge location.
Waves and tides disperse the sand, and the wind and waves slowly moves the sand northwards (known as littoral or longshore drift). This keeps our beaches sandy and provides foreshore protection.
At the end of each pumping session the pipeline is flushed with seawater, to clean the line of any remaining sand.
Recent vibrant artwork has transformed the Hove booster pump station from a blank wall into a mural that acknowledges country, while reflecting the beauty of our coastal landscape.
Artist Elizabeth Close, a Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara woman from APY Lands, designed and painted the mural. The artwork design talks to acknowledgement of country, as well as travelling or walking along the coast and the beauty of the coastal landscape.
The artwork was co-funded by the City of Holdfast Bay and the Department for Environment and Water.
