Lakes Entrance Sand Management, Environment Protection, Sand Dredging, Tide Information, Dredging Pump Sand, Coastal Environment & Coastal Protection, Gippsland

This report details the findings of a maritime archaeological/cultural heritage assessment of Lakes Entrance. The subject area comprises the foreshore and channel areas of: the eastern extremity of Hopetoun Channel between Rigby Island and Boole Poole Peninsula, the western extremity of Cunninghame Arm, the western extremity of North Arm west of and including the North Arm traffic bridge, the Narrows Channel and foreshore, and Rigby, Snake and Bullock Island foreshores, (see Figures 1 and 2). Currently the area forms part of the waters and foreshore of Lakes Entrance, but the Entrance Channel and connected waterway have become choked with sand accretion which is threatening to close the navigable waterways of the port. To alleviate this problem, a program of further dredging and channel deepening is planned to remove sand build-up around the Entrance Channel and inland waterways and deposit it to offshore “Dredged Material Grounds”(DMG) on either side of the Entrance. Gippsland Ports commissioned Environmental Resource Management Australia Pty Ltd (ERM) to conduct a desk top assessment of potential and known maritime cultural heritage sites in the study area prior to the planned dredging taking place in order to identify any issues relating to the maritime cultural heritage resource.