The continuing development of our coastlines displaces and fragments important coastal habitats and, together with climate change impacts, compromises the essential ecosystem services they provide. Nature-based solutions to coastal development that balance engineering and development objectives with ecological outcomes can help mitigate our impact on coastal habitats and improve resilience in the face of climate change. Multidisciplinary coastal management initiatives involving collaboration between industry, government, and research organisations, allow for exploring novel solutions to habitat creation. The development of a multi-habitat ‘living seawall’ in the Port of Gladstone, in an industrial port within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, has allowed for examination of practical, cost-effective techniques for incorporating habitat creation into seawall design. Creating sediment banks along an existing seawall aimed to increase mangrove habitat availability and suitability, and enhance biodiversity. Findings one year on after developing a living seawall offer insight into methods for facilitating mangrove establishment, benthic colonisation, sedimentation, and options for oyster habitat creation. Our research aims to show how coastal restoration approaches can be successfully, and practically, scaled up, to support more sustainable coastal development practices.