ANTHROPOGENIC MODIFICATION IN A REGRESSIVE STRAND PLAIN, NORTH STRADBROKE ISLAND, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

As researchers continually develop Holocene sea level curves for Eastern Australia, investigation of the geomorphology of area shorelines is imperative. North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia is the world’s second largest sand island, featuring wide regressive strand plains on its north and east facing shores. These strand plains are important for providing potential sea level curve information. However, North Stradbroke Island’s eastern beaches have had a history of extensive modification due to sand mining and rehabilitation, and it is unknown if the northern beaches have seen the same modification (Moore, 2011; Smith and Nichols, 2011). This study uses a MALA Pro-Ex ground-penetrating radar system with a 250 MHz shielded antenna array coupled with a real-time kinematic global positioning system to deduce the presence and extent of any previous sand mining or anthropogenic modification to the strand plain at Flinder’s Beach on North Stradbroke Island’s northern margin.