Case Study
Port Beach Sand Nourishment
Location
Fremantle, Western Australia
Client
City of Fremantle
Description
361 Degrees was engaged to develop and deliver the communications and stakeholder engagement strategy, helping to build public confidence and manage expectations for a complex climate transition project.
Port Beach is one of Fremantle’s most popular beaches, accessed by locals and visitors year round, and was shaped by the early construction work associated with the Fremantle Harbour and Fremantle Port. It is also one of Western Australia’s most significant coastal erosion hotspots, requiring intervention to protect public assets, recreational values and the long-term resilience of the Fremantle area’s coastline.
The City of Fremantle, together with Fremantle Ports and the Department of Transport, delivered a major sand nourishment project as an important medium-term climate adaptation measure. Alongside the engineering challenge was an equally important communications challenge to build community understanding that the project was an interim response within a much longer coastal adaptation strategy.
361 Degrees was engaged to develop and deliver the communications and stakeholder engagement strategy, helping to build public confidence and manage expectations for a complex climate transition project. This included building on existing stakeholder relationships and insights, ensuring communications acknowledged previously expressed concerns, demonstrated continuity in decision-making and maintained stakeholder confidence throughout project delivery.
The project was completed as a medium-term adaptation measure with ongoing monitoring and planning for longer-term coastal adaptation continuing.
Project Outcomes
The communications and engagement program helped support the successful delivery by:
- Building community understanding of the need for climate adaptation.
- Supporting informed public discussion around coastal erosion risks.
- Managing expectations regarding construction impacts and temporary disruption.
- Helping maintain stakeholder confidence throughout project delivery.
- Supporting collaboration across three government agencies.
- Reinforcing that sand nourishment formed part of a longer-term coastal adaptation pathway.
- Contributing to positive public acceptance of an interim adaptation measure while longer-term planning continues.
By translating complex technical information into meaningful community conversations, managing stakeholder expectations and supporting transparent decision-making, we helped to enable a major coastal resilience project while strengthening community understanding of the long-term challenges of climate change.
