Gone to sea

Years ago the NSW Government was told that climate change effects would mean that many of the state’s beaches would disappear over time.

This is Yamba’s main beach in the winter courtesy of The Daily Examiner online. Notice the absence of any hint of sand at high tide.

Sadly at low tide the beach is a pale ghost of its former self as Coastalwatch's live SurfCam shows.

This is a foolish Clarence Valley Council trying to defy the might of the sea and changed ocean conditions:

“Mr Donges said early plans were underway to construct a new seawall at Main Beach to help protect the area from coastal erosion and severe weather events.

"We were down at Main Beach with some consultants last week with an excavator - we're designing a new seawall to go from the pool to past the clubhouse," he said.

"The consultants needed to dig a series of holes on the beach in order to find out what's under the sand - basically you've got half a metre of sand, then a gravel layer, boulders then a clay layer which is good news because we can possibly build the wall on that clay layer."

Mr Donges said it was too early to tell when the project would start.

"At the moment we're only engaged - us and the State Government - to get a design done for it - once we've got the design done, we can start looking at options for the wall to be funded."

 

Erosion at Turner's Beach, Yamba

Pic from The Daily Examiner

UPDATE:

In a 17th July 2012 media release Clarence Valley Council and Mayor Richie Willamson forget what the Federal Government, NSW Government and CSIRO have been telling them for at least the last five years about expected erosion of soft shorelines in the lower Clarence River estuary*:

"The eastern end of Yamba’s Whiting Beach has a new look with the construction of a stepped wall consisting of large sand filled geofabric bags.

Works were required to halt rapid erosion in the eastern corner over the last few months which damaged drainage lines and threatened underground service line, the footpath and eventually the road.

All that’s left is a bit of beautification and the replacement of a section of the footpath.

Mayor Richie Williamson said "in cases like this an impending disaster requires us to drop other works, find some money and get the job done as soon as possible. Our blokes on the job and contractors did a fantastic job in difficult conditions"

"Now we need to work out why large sections of Whiting Beach are eroding at a significant rate in order to see if there are affordable solutions to protect this popular location. We are seeking a funding partnership with the state government to engage experts to investigate the process at work".

Whiting Beach in the Clarence River estuary

* Thanks to Clarencegirl for reminding me that some of these reports specifically address issues in the Clarence River estuary.