Danger at South Port beach after storms cause landslides
WILD weather has left large stretches of Adelaide’s coastline a danger zone, prompting a warning for people to stay well clear of dunes in case of landslides or rock falls.
CHILDREN playing on fragile sand dunes at South Port beach are risking serious injury, prompting Onkaparinga Council to erect signs warning people to stay away.
South Port Surf Life Saving Club environment officer Dick Olesinski said children had been spotted playing on the dunes, which were eroded during the recent storms that battered the state.
“Some people are just silly, they don’t have any foresight for danger,” Mr Olesinski said.
“That is just a tragedy waiting to happen.
“It would be tonnes of sand dropping on you, there would be no way to survive.”
He said club members patrolled the beach over the weekend to remind people of the safety risks.
Onkaparinga city operations director Kirk Richardson said beachgoers would be seriously injured if the unstable dunes collapsed on top of them.
“Since the river levels have dropped people have been seen in this fragile dune area and children have been playing and digging under the steep escarpments,” Mr Richardson said.
“The area is very dangerous because it’s common for sections of sand to collapse and continue doing so after major storms.
“Over time we expect the beach to replenish itself but it remains to be seen how long this will take, so until then people need to observe the signs and stay safe.”
He said the council had installed signs on the beach and along the Onkaparinga River, near where the mouth meets the sea, in an attempt to steer people clear of the dunes.
The wild weather that battered cliff faces and beaches along the south coast last week also lead to rockfalls at Moana and South Port.
Mr Richardson said while the most significant concern was South Port, the council was monitoring all its 31km of coastline.
Mid South Coast Ward Cr Robyn Holtham took photos of two large rockfalls at Moana cliff faces.
“They are of two different places on the same beach and there is other damage as well,” Cr Holtham said.
“Huge sand bags have been washed away, stairs/ramps are being undermined and lots of plastic rubbish and dead sealife is on the beach.”
An Onkaparinga-commissioned study of 12km of its coast, released last month, found cliffs at Port Willunga, Seaford, Aldinga and Port Noarlunga South posed the “highest risk” of collapse to people or property.
