Why this Adelaide beach has been lined with fences:
A SECTION of a popular Adelaide beach has been lined with fences placed on an angle – it’s a controversial move that has been condemned by some as an “engineering brainfade”. What’s your view?
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AN independent ecologist and community group leaders have condemned a Charles Sturt Council sand barrier trial at West Beach.
The council has been conducting the trial between Rockingham St and the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club in a bid to limit coastal erosion and stop sand blowing onto roads and homes.
A series of angled fences has been built through the dunes in an attempt to stop sand from blowing away, referred to as “drift fencing”.
The barriers were installed last week to catch the sand, which was then moved back down to the beach. Sand was also removed from the top of the dunes and placed further down on the beach.
However, independent ecologist Ian Dyson said the work would be ineffective and any fencing or vegetation at the top of the dune was at risk of being washed away in a storm due to the lack of protection at the dune face.
“If you don’t stabilise the beach you will lose all the sand on the dune, then there won’t be a need to worry about sand blowing over the road as there won’t be any,” he said.
“Stabilise the beach, develop the coastal dune, then planting vegetation would be the better way to do it.”
Western Adelaide Coastal Residents Association president Jim Douglas said the drift fencing was an “engineering brainfade” and Save West Beach Sand spokesman John Dundon said there was “nothing natural” about the work the council had done.
“Moving the sand down to the face of the dune will actually make it more susceptible to wind,” he said.
Charles Sturt chief executive Paul Sutton said the work was triggered by an ongoing problem at West Beach where the sand blew over a stone wall and over the road to residential properties.
“The angled drift fencing design allows us to manage the return of the sand to the lower part of the dune and the beach more effectively and frequently,” he said.
Mr Sutton said the council was satisfied with the results of the trial but could not say how much sand had been captured and returned.
In December the council wrote to Environment Minister Ian Hunter about returning sand collected by street sweepers to beaches and dunes. The council was yet to receive a response from the state government.
The Esplanade and Seaview Rd at Henley Beach, as well as Rockingham St at West Beach, were identified as areas where sand built up on the streets.
Storm damage last year destroyed fences and vegetation built on the West Beach dunes in 2014.