Sand mining on North Stradbroke Island : an Islander view of the rehabilitation of the lands

Sand mining on North Stradbroke Island has ceased 70 years after it became the Island’s major industry. This article reports conversations with local indigenous people who have lived on the Island all their lives, together with long-term residents – people who have lived with, and worked (directly or indirectly) for the mines, and now must live with the legacy. Views on sand mining changed over time. Initially beach mining was considered benign – tides restored scars, and sand was whiter. Subsequent mining adjacent to the beach and inland resulted in degraded landscapes – failed rehabilitation, introduced plant species, and uncharacteristically-shaped dunes. More recent mine support for Islanders and landscape rehabilitation were considered ‘perfect’. Post-mining issues included unemployment, emigration of younger family members to seek work, depressed house prices trapping people, and tourists destroying the landscape. No Islander interviewed wanted sand mining to cease.