Gold Coast Seaway celebrating 40 years of world first infrastructure

From the wandering journo at Stories That Matter Studios, I'm Nance Haxton, and this is Streets of Your Town.

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It's not often we celebrate a world-first feat of engineering that underpins the society surrounding it.

But a technological triumph built four decades ago at the Gold Coast and still going strong today is now being recognised as one of the most important developments in the region's history.

Before the Gold Coast Seaway was built, the notorious Southport Bar was a shallow, dangerous and ever-changing sandbar that made navigation hazardous and caused numerous boating accidents.

But a permanent sand bypass system, which took two years to build, became a key part of stabilising the Narang River mouth, enabling this nightmarish stretch of sand to become the main navigation entrance from the Pacific Ocean to the Gold Coast Broadwater.

Today on Streets of Your Town, we hear a bit of this history from one of the original engineers on the project who was there to celebrate its 40th anniversary at a special ceremony at the sand pumping jetty that forms a central part of the project.

But firstly, Gold Coast Waterways Authority Chair Deanna Knott started celebrations by recalling what the waterway was like before the Gold Coast Seaway was built.