West Beach Surf Life Saving Club calls for breakwater to help address sand erosion
A METROPOLITAN Adelaide surf lifesaving club is calling for action as its once-sandy beach becomes a rocky, unusable terrain.
WEST Beach Surf Lifesaving Club says a breakwater north of the club is needed to address sand erosion near its clubrooms.
Club president Peter Zuill said the club had gradually watched the sand level at its Seaview Rd clubroom reduce over the past three years, and had called for action to curb the problem.
"We've lost a lot of sand to the point where virtually there's no beach in front of the club, it just comes straight up on to the rocks," Mr Zuill said.
He said the beach had become so depleted members could no longer run activities in front of the club.
"We either have to go further south in front of the caravan park or up to the north where there's some beach," Mr Zuill said.
"It really restricts the kids who are training during nippers on a Saturday afternoon because there's not a lot of beach especially when it's a high tide."
Are you worried about the sand level dropping at West Beach? Tell us below.
Charles Sturt Council has constructed a new ramp to the north of the clubrooms to provide access to the beach after part of the club's main ramp, on the southern side, was eroded.
Resident Garry Lysle, who lives near the cordoned off ramp, also wants action to reverse the sand erosion.
"Over a period of time it's been getting worse and at the moment it's quite bad, because they've had to block off the main ramp from the surf lifesaving club," he said.
"Even the main wall that abuts the surf club appears to be being eroded as well."
Charles Sturt councillor Robert Randall said the council had met with West Beach SLSC and was carrying out ongoing work at the site to combat the erosion caused by winter storms.
"Sand erosion is always a problem and this year it's probably a bit more of a problem than normal because of high winds and high tides coinciding but it's nothing abnormal," he said.
"We've identified that the rock wall needs to be repaired and we have a commitment from the Coastal Protection Board to do that."
A 2005 State Government report into coastal management said a breakwater should be constructed north of the surf club "if erosion cannot be contained".
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However, Adelaide's Living Beaches Project manager Rob Tucker said there was no intention of intervention to increase sand levels on beach.
"That's always been a vulnerable location and the strategy says if in fact beach replenishment is not viable, then a breakwater solution would have to be contemplated, (but) there's been no further advance on that," he said.
"What replenishes the beach along that stretch is sand moving out of the West Beach dunes, which it is currently doing.
"Over many years the retreat of the dunes at West Beach has exacerbated this problem.
"Retreat of the dunes along the whole Adelaide coast have been ongoing thing before even settlement."
A sand pipeline has been constructed to move sand from near the mouth of the Torrens River south to West Beach, adjacent to the Adelaide Shores Caravan Park, which is south of West Beach SLSC.
Mr Tucker said the natural movement of sand along the coast, from south to north, would bring the piped sand back to the beach near West Beach SLSC.
Are you worried about the sand level dropping at West Beach? Tell us below.