Efforts to manage sediment in the Tamar estuary are entering new territory after monitoring showed June’s floods scoured masses of silt from the river.
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Surveys revealed flooding removed 880,000 cubic metres of sediment from the river between Kings Bridge and the University of Tasmania.
Flooding scoured about 380,000 cubic metres of that figure from the Yacht Basin.
Launceston Flood Authority general manager Andrew Fullard said the amount of sediment moved was “extraordinary”. Floods in 2011 scoured about 150,000 cubic metres of sediment from the Yacht Basin, he said.
The LFA will continue to monitor the river but expects recent high water flows from wet weather to slow reaccretion.
It will reassess the need for further silt raking when monitoring indicates it is required. The aftermath of the floods, the worst in recent decades, was new territory for sediment management, Mr Fullard said.
Sediment management needed to continue for flood protection into the future, he said.