SAND is slipping away from Southend’s coastline at an alarming rate and residents are calling on Wattle Range Council to trial short-term solutions before the town is swallowed by the sea.
Southend fisherman Scott Redman said community members recognised an issue with erosion quite some time ago, however within the last decade the issue appears to have worsened.
He added while groynes and sea walls worked in certain situations, they were not working in Southend and called for further solutions to be investigated.
“Erosion seems to be getting worse every year, I think it could be as a result of the angle the groynes are on and the way the north west currents come in and take the sand out,” he said.
“At one of the town meetings, one of the ideas we came up with was to hopefully change the angle of the groyne or dog leg it at the end with a few days work on an excavator.
“From this we could see if it would do something to try and promote the sand build up rather than take it away.
“Or if they had put a short rock wall along the foot of the bank of the park, that may be enough to save it.
“I do not believe it is just direct wave action that does it, but more of the high tides and then you get the wave actions that loosen it and the tide goes and sweeps it out.”
Last year council announced it would prohibit new developments and relocate existing infrastructure in areas of Southend in an attempt to combat the looming threat of erosion.
In a commissioned report, council found the town’s caravan park, sailing club and bush camping sites north of Leake Street were at immediate risk of erosion and flooding, with some residential homes at threat of being inundated at the end of the century.
The report recommended a planned retreat of the three areas, with necessary planning works “to begin imminently”.
However, residents are saying a “do nothing” approach is not an option when it comes to saving their town.
Mr Redman said while no one knows what the right thing to do is, some action would be better than none as the situation appears to worsen every year.
“When the groynes were initially put here 30 years ago they were at right angles to the beach,” he said.
“Now it has opened it up and closed the angle so it tends to chew out more, I do not know whether that is worth exploring.
“Obviously it does cost a fair bit of money nowadays to do things like that.
“I think council are slowly starting to get somewhere with it but action needs to be taken as soon as possible because it would be a shame for the town to lose even more of the caravan park on the foreshore which would directly affect tourism to the area”
“When it first started happening residents were raising it as an issue and there was absolutely no action taken, which left some of them feeling let down as a coastal town.”
Mr Redman said the community was aiming to make Southend a tourist destination, with the erosion posing a serious threat to existing and flagged infrastructure.
“We need action to try and curb it in the short term, we might have a really bad winter and it could end up another 10 metres back,” he said.
“We definitely are not going to say we know the right way or wrong way, it is just that something needs to be done.”
