By the 1960s these concentrations had been exhausted and the miners moved their operations to the foredunes. The process was labour intensive with miners digging through the top layer of sand to extract the rich black mineral sand below. Mining began on the Island in the 1950s on the beachfront. However the ecology of the Island has been dramatically changed by the advent of sand mining. In recognition of Stradbroke’s ecological importance the Island’s Blue Lake is listed as a National Park and many of the wetlands are RAMSAR listed. The ecology of Stradbroke is similar to the World Heritage Fraser Island. The dune system supports different forest communities, ranging from dwarf woodlands and grassy forests to tall layered woodlands and rainforests. Its undulating sand dunes give way to pristine perched lakes surrounded by dense native vegetation that runs to the shoreline. This unique geological process formed an island of high ecological and mineral value. Through geological time the island of Minjerriba formed off the Queensland coast as mineral rich sands from mainland erosion coalesced through tidal and wind action around the rocky outcrop of Point Lookout. From these small beginnings, the sandmining industry expanded along the east coast of Australia, establishing mines from the New South Wales Central Coast to the shores of Fraser Island. Byron Bay was chosen because the area contained a high concentration of mineral sands which were previously mined by gold prospectors. The first sandmining in Australia took place in Byron Bay in 1934 when Zircon-Rutile Ltd formed to mine the beach sands along the coast of New South Wales. While these campaigns were successful, mining continues to reshape North Stradbroke Island. Sandmining was a potent political issue for many environmentalists during the 1970s and 1980s with high profile campaigns to protect high conservation value sand islands, most notably Fraser and Moreton. From the iconic World Heritage listed Fraser Island to the tourist hub of the Gold Coast sandmining has played an important role in Queensland’s history. From beach front to high dunes, sandmining has been undertaken along hundreds of kilometres of coastline. Mineral sandmining has reshaped many of Queensland’s beaches and sand islands.
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