McCrae landslide: About 60 homes could be in limbo as long-term solution is needed, but could take years
More Mornington Peninsula properties have been evacuated as the exclusion zone grows around the site of a McCrae landslide that destroyed a luxury home and damaged two others.
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More Mornington Peninsula properties have been evacuated as the exclusion zone grows around the site of a McCrae landslide that destroyed a luxury home and damaged two others.
Mornington Peninsula mayor Anthony Marsh said the shire’s municipal building surveyor deemed there was “a potential risk to life or property” at five more addresses.
The properties were officially evacuated on Friday night.
Two were occupied and the remaining three were not.
Mr Marsh said there had been no further movement around the newly evacuated properties and the decision had been taken out of “an abundance of caution”.
The number of properties evacuated since a Penny Lane house tumbled down the cliffs on Tuesday morning now stands at 20.
Mr Marsh said he was not expecting further evacuations.
He said investigations into the cause of the landslide were continuing.
“Nothing has been ruled out,” he said.
“At this stage there has been no confirmation that council drainage or South East Water infrastructure was involved.”
The SES was likely to hand control of managing the site to the shire next week.
Experts reveal bleak future for McCrae landslide solution
About 60 high-end homes from McCrae to Dromana could be in limbo after a landslide wiped out one property and damaged two others this week.
A multi-kilometre stretch of Point Nepean Rd is still shut to the public, and many homes remain under evacuation orders around the disaster site as authorities work to understand what caused the collapse.
The 15 properties deemed too unsafe for residents to return to until investigators can assess the cause of Tuesday’s horror incident have a combined value of about $30m.
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On Wednesday, residents were told it would be weeks before they could collect their belongings.
But experts have predicted it could take years to figure out and implement a long-term solution to make the homes safe for reoccupation.
A Mornington Peninsula Council worker, aged in his 50s, was taken to hospital with lower body injuries after the collapse.
He was inspecting a Penny Lane house, following an earlier landslide, when he was forced to jump from a second storey balcony as the home tumbled down the hill.
And locals this week have raised concerns investigations could put a question mark over as many as 50 additional homes at the top and bottom of the cliff from along The Eyrie, McCrae, and Foord Lane and Clifftop Court in neighbouring Dromana.
Registered geotechnical engineer Tim Holt, from the Melbourne-based engineering consultancy A.S. James, said “remedial works would need to extend some distance over a number of properties”.
Mr Holt said a long-term solution to make the affected houses safe to live in would involve detecting the landslip’s cause and formulating remedial measures.
These would need to be agreed upon by the affected parties, then put to Mornington Peninsula Council, designed and installed.
“My guess is the process could now take two years at least,” Mr Holt said.
In 2022, a McCrae home was evacuated after a smaller landslip caused soil to slide down a hill and crash into another abode.
That homeowner is not yet back in their house and the matter is subject to an ongoing legal case.
Mr Holt has attended the McCrae area multiple times in the past six months.
This is usually to prepare or check reports that are submitted by would-be home builders or alterers to Mornington Peninsula Council for potential projects in declared erosion management overlays – meaning areas prone to potential landslips.
Mr Holt said there were several other such overlays, with different geology and profiles, across the Peninsula covering parts of Blairgowrie, Somers, Flinders, Portsea, Sorrento, Rye, Mt Eliza and – outside of the municipality – Frankston.
Guidelines for landslide susceptibility, hazard and zoning risks were established following a landslide that resulted in the deaths of 18 people and destroyed two ski villages in Thredbo, NSW, in 1997.
Peninsula real estate agent Grant McConnell said while he had been just days away from listing a home just above the landslide for sale, clifftop residences would now be off the sales agenda for an unknown timeline.
“The owners are devastated as it’s now a great unknown as to when we could even start the campaign,” Mr McConnell said.
Mr McConnell said it was believed not just the immediate area would be investigated, but much of the zone beneath homes along nearby clifftops including The Eyrie and Prospect Hill Rd, next to View Point Rd which is currently cordoned off.
The cliff along Foord Lane in Dromana could also be looked into, with authorities taking no chances around the affected area.
Mornington Peninsula-based Bright Advocates buyer’s agent Andre Pereira said while clifftop and waterside homes in Dromana and McCrae had long been popular, the landslide would have a lasting impact on buyers.
“They can search things online and they will do their own research, and if they find something like that it will definitely affect their decision,” Mr Pereira said.
“The precedent that something like that can happen, it will definitely affect how people see these places.”
The potential impact to insurance could also prove a factor on buyer appetite more broadly.
An Insurance Council of Australia spokesperson said insurers assessed the possibility of landslides when offering and pricing premiums.
HOMES AFFECTED BY THE LANDSLIDE:
DESTROYED
3 Penny Lane, McCrae
Four-bedroom house
Sold 2023: $2.085m
Estimated value: $1.82m
EVACUATED
2 Penny Lane, McCrae
Five-bedroom house
Sold 2008: $755,000
Estimated value: $1.56m
605 Point Nepean Rd
Two-bedroom house
Sold January, 2024: $1.83m
Estimated value: $1.61m
599-601 Point Nepean Rd
Sold 2009: $670,000
$25,000 permit approved for carport, 2023
Estimated value: $1.73m
603 Point Nepean Rd
Four-bedroom house
Estimated value: $1.53m
607-609 Point Nepean Rd
Four-bedroom house
Sold 2018: $1.1m
Estimated value: $1.53m
1/613 Point Nepean Rd
Three-bedroom unit
Sold 2019: $915,000
Estimated value: $1.18m
2/613 Point Nepean Rd
Three-bedroom unit
Built 2006
Estimated value: $1.37m
3/613 Point Nepean Rd
Four-bedroom unit
Sold 2006: $610,000
Estimated value: $1.39m
4/613 Point Nepean Rd
Three-bedroom unit
Sold 2006: $455,000
Estimated value: $1.29m
2 View Point Rd
Three-bedroom house
Sold 2016: $1.45m
Estimated value: $1.48m
4 View Point Rd
House
Estimated value: $1.77m
6 View Point Rd
Five-bedroom house
Sold 2002: $500,000
Was due to be listed for sale next week, prior to the landslide – those plans have since changed
Estimated value: $4m-$5m
10-12 View Point Rd
Sold 2014: $2.5m
$300,000 building permit approved, 2016
14-16 View Point Rd
House
$1,467,759 building permit approved, 2017
Property history and valuation sources: realestate.com.au, CoreLogic
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Originally published as McCrae landslide: About 60 homes could be in limbo as long-term solution is needed, but could take years
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