Heavy machinery has remained on the sand for the past three weeks, shifting rocks and sand to finish off the first stages of overall plans to salvage the sand dunes. 

The $174,000 project has been supported by Moyne Shire and the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and has been a priority task since 2010.

“We reinforced the dunes further to the north to make it less dangerous and less likely to collapse,” Moyne Shire director of physical services Trev Greenberger said. 

Project manager for the Port Fairy working group Ross Martin said the entire northern section needed to be rebuilt while major repairs were needed for up to 100 metres of the wall. 

“The original rock wall was built incrementally over a number of decades and has not been constructed to current engineering standards,” Mr Martin said.

“We have also been able to reshape and strengthen the dunes in an area where it was vulnerable to a potential breach in the dune. 

“It was strengthened through a distribution of large volumes of sand,” he said.

Mr Greenberger said council would wait on the results of a coastal engineer’s report into the remainder of the wall and dunes spanning to Battery Hill.

Meanwhile, the council is also awaiting a separate report expected to be released in the new year, which will detail the rate and severity of the erosion problem facing the popular tourist spot.