Life's a Beach

Most of the sandy banks on these inland waterways come from sediment run off. Over the years the rains carve out handfuls of sand and then carry them down stream, bit by bit. As the rivers bend and twist down towards the ocean they scatter the sand they've brought with them and eventually craft a nice sandy beach, good enough to sit and fish from while the billy boils over a nearby campfire.

The waterways on the wetlands, being recently man made, haven't had time to build up beaches like this. They might never manage it. Humans are the masters of efficiency and control. We like things straight, rigid and direct, so the irrigation channels that fill our lagoons don't have the gentle meander that nature would have given them. Add to that the various damns and drains that the water has to pass through and there's not a lot of sand coming our way.

Our crocodiles need a beach however. Being cold blooded they need to lie about in the sun to regulate their body temperature. They also use the sand to bury their eggs and these bake slowly for several months until the young hatchlings burst out and clamber to the surface (usually to be devoured by the waiting birds and other reptiles). Without a beach our crocodiles won’t hang around and within a few days they'll be heading back downstream.

'Beach engineer' is not a job I’d ever anticipated having so I start with little knowledge and a plan to learn as I go along (my usual approach). There are several possible spots along the bank of the main lagoon but all have problems: the site is too close to the walking trails; the water is too shallow; the banks are too steep.

Fifty meters off the shore, at the far end of the lagoon is a small island overrun with weeds. The bank of this is perfect and it has the added benefit that being on an island it will be harder for the feral pigs and dogs to get on and cause trouble (both can swim but at least we'll see them coming). It's perfect; except for the tiny complication of actually being able to get sand onto it.