June 23, 2025
We’re proud to have been selected by Lake Macquarie City Council to provide a dredge and sand transfer system. As an Australian-owned maritime engineering company, Birdon is committed to creating a reliable and safe passage for recreational boaters and commercial fishing charters through the Swansea Channel near Newcastle, NSW.
With nearly 50 years of dredging experience and specialised expertise, Birdon has sourced a 12m vessel, known as a Beaver 30, from Royal IHC in the Netherlands to meet the Council’s specific requirements.
Jim Cole, Executive General Manager Environment at Birdon, said the Beaver 30 cutter section dredger is one of the most advanced models available worldwide, offering exceptional performance and reliability.
“Birdon successfully operates similar equipment in other dredge projects across Australia, ensuring both familiarity with the product and proven capability,” Mr Cole said.
Under the $7.4 million tender contract, Birdon will source, modify, install and test the dredge, and provide and install a sand transfer system to pump dredged sand from the lake overland to the beach at Belmont South.
“We’re proud to partner with Lake Macquarie City Council to deliver an efficient dredging solution that will have a lasting impact on maritime access and environmental resilience in the region,” Mr Cole said.
Lake Macquarie Mayor Adam Shultz said, “This will be a state-of-the-art piece of equipment set to transform access into and out of Lake Macquarie.”
Testing and commissioning of the new dredge and sand transfer system is scheduled for early 2026. The equipment will then be handed over to the NSW Government’s Transport for NSW to own and operate by mid-year.
The system will have the capacity to pump at least 1000m3 of sand a day, with typical dredging campaigns each expected to remove about 20,000m3 over a four- to six-week period. Larger campaigns may also be required to remove up to 120,000m3.
The contract builds on Birdon’s 48-year history in dredging, which started in 1977 in Port Macquarie, NSW, and now includes projects for government and private customers throughout Australia, across the maritime transport, resources, and environment sectors.
Birdon’s cross-industry experience includes a 24-year ongoing dredging contract with Parks Victoria to maintain various sites around Port Phillip Bay and Western Port, a large-scale dredging contract at Garden Island Naval Base in Sydney Harbour, maintenance and capital dredging around South Australia’s state-owned maritime precinct, and navigation channel dredging in the Broadwater on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
The company’s dredging and marine fleet includes a wide range of equipment such as cutter section dredges, backhoe dredges, hoppers and split hopper barges, equipment and work barges, tugs and workboats. Birdon is actively expanding its dredging operations in the growing resources sector, backed by experience from projects such as the removal of 16.5 million m³ of tailings slurry at Bulga Coal Mine critical to enabling continued access to coal reserves and dredging and remediation works at the discontinued Benambra Mine in Victoria.