Quinns Beach Shark Barrier officially opened by WA Premier

The Quinns Beach Shark Barrier was officially opened this morning by WA Premier, the Hon. Colin Barnett MLA, alongside the City of Wanneroo Mayor Tracey Roberts. 

The Quinns Beach Shark Barrier is now fully complete and open to the public. The public feedback and support for the project has been incredible and it appears to have already had an impact on people's swimming choices. 

The Quinns Beach Swimming Enclosure was co-funded by the WA State Government and the City of Wanneroo. The installation process began on the 18th January and was fully complete and demobilised by the 30th January, less than two weeks after it began. The speed and effectiveness of the installation program was due to the innovative new processes; including using a helicopter, producing the barrier in sections, and completing most of the works out of the water. 

Aquarius Barrier Progress Report and Underwater Images

The Aquarius Barrier has been well-received by the Albany community - including the local marine wildlife.

The Aquarius Barrier will be cleaned every 3 months so that the growth build up remains manageable, but after a month and a half the Aquarius Barrier is turning into an artificial reef and is attracting a lot of fish and marine species. 

Growth accumulation on the Aquarius Barrier

The Aquarius Barrier hinges at low tide

The Aquarius Barrier rock anchor at high tide

Middleton Beach Update: New Aquarius Barrier Section Performing Well

The new section of the Aquarius Barrier at Middleton Beach, Albany, was completed on the 6th April. The reinstallation process was a lot smoother as we figured out new ways to improve the process. The new section was delivered in a single piece that meant even less disruption to the beach. 

We promised the Albany community a barrier that was better suited to the unique conditions at Middleton Beach. We upgraded the undamaged section and replaced an entire section in the damaged area, so that the barrier features a greater vertical strength across the entire length. We are very confident in the new design improvements and early results suggest that the barrier is performing very well in its environment. 

Our local monitoring report conducted by Paul from SUPLime indicated that the new design was doing very well: 

"The barrier seems to be in great condition and the new design is holding up well - the amount of people I witnessed throughout the day was also encouraging"

The barrier had testing swell and weather conditions as a storm passed through last Friday, but the upgraded design appears to have handled it well with no reported damage or issues. 

We will continue to provide regular updates here to inform the local Albany community of how the upgraded Aquarius Barrier is performing at Middleton Beach. 

Global Marine Enclosures' eco-friendly shark barrier named as part of Mike Baird's $16m shark management strategy

The Aquarius Barrier, the new eco-friendly shark barrier technology developed by Global Marine Enclosures, was selected for trial at Lennox Head in northern New South Wales as part of Mike Baird's $16m Shark Management Strategy managed by the Department of Primary Industries. 

Global Marine Enclosures was awarded the contract for a 650m eco-friendly shark barrier at Seven Mile Beach in Lennox Head following a competitive tender process. The Aquarius Barrier is an eco-friendly swimming enclosure that provides a secure swimming area and doesn't trap or kill marine species. 

The New South Wales shark management strategy is focussed on trialling environmentally friendly alternatives to the net meshing program that has been running in NSW for over five decades. 'Eco-barriers' were identified as a potentially viable alternative but it was noted that as beach conditions are very different in New South Wales, it would be a good idea to test the technology at high energy wave beach locations. 

We are very excited by the possibility of trialling the Aquarius Barrier seeing how our technology responds to the high energy beach environment. We are very confident of it's ability to perform well in the challenging conditions. We look forward to working with the New South Wales DPI and the local Lennox Head community to make the Aquarius Barrier trial a successful project for all involved. 

See the ABC news article of the barrier announcements here >>