A scale model of the new Ocean Reef Marina has been battered with waves up to 12 centimetres high – the equivalent of 7-metre monster waves – in an effort to understand how the new breakwaters could deal with a once in a 500-year storm event.

The mini-breakwaters were constructed at a scale of 55-1 inside the Manly Hydraulics Laboratory in Sydney.

The model was put through months of testing in a body of water around half the size of an Olympic swimming pool.

Clinton Doak is a coastal engineer from MP Rogers & Associates and worked inside the lab during the testing phase.