This section of coast is managed by the City of Greater Geelong. The Breamlea area includes Thompsons Creek (and the adjacent creek hinterland), the beach, dunes and rocky shore to Blue Rocks (Figure 6-1). The creek is a low-energy water body that meanders through the very low-lying and very flat floodplain hinterland. To the west of the creek entrance there is a large area of saline wetland habitat fed by the creek through a culvert under the road. The inner bends of the creek are armoured with low rock retaining-wall structures. These are in place for erosion control along the creek and to minimise any further movements of the channel, and will not protect against inundation. There is only one road in and out of the Breamlea settlement, and this is likely to be at risk in future inundation scenarios.

The Breamlea beaches are relatively wide, low angle, low-tide terrace beaches (Short, 1996). The wave conditions are swell dominated, and the shoreline is afforded some protection from the dominant south-westerly swells due to Point Impossible (west of the Thompsons Creek entrance) and the orientation of the shoreline. The Breamlea barrier dune ranges in height from 0 m AHD to over 20 m AHD, the inner landward side is covered with private dwellings. The north-east end of the beach is held by volcanic boulders, probably eroded from the inland volcanic area of Mt. Duneed.

Figure 6-1     Compartment 1: Breamlea to Blue Rocks + cross-shore profiles (in red)

East of Breamlea, similar volcanic boulders have fixed the shorelines at each end of Buckley’s Bay and Bancoora Beach. Both beaches exhibit a characteristic crescent shape between the fixed ends and each is slightly skewed to the east, indicating the dominant littoral drift is from the south-west, to north-east. Sediments taken from Bancoora Beach show that the dune sample is mostly fine sediment, with the swash sample containing more medium and coarse grain sizes.