Wamberal Beach erosion: Emergency works continue with rock bags from overseas
Wamberal Beach has exhausted Australia’s rock bag supply, with emergency works set to resume and assessors returning to review the situation after recent wild weather.
Central Coast
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Emergency works from the Wamberal Beach disaster have exhausted all the rock bags available in Australia.
Around 260 rock bags have been placed in front of the most affected properties on Ocean View Drive, with Central Coast Council having to source 1000 more bags internationally.
The bags from Japan should be arriving by Friday with plans for the huge crane to return to Wamberal to place bags as early as Sunday.
the council’s chief executive officer Gary Murphy said preliminary inspections have indicated the bags have “held up well” during the recent wild weather to prevent further damage.
“We exhausted every single rock bag in Australia,” he said.
“There was some apprehension the work wouldn’t get done before the weekend weather.
“Fortunately it wasn’t as bad as we were predicting but we did get 260 rock-filled bags placed here on Wamberal Beach in front of the most affected properties. Each of those bags contains roughly two tonnes of rocks so it’s about 520 tonnes of rocks. Another 1100 tonnes of large rocks has been placed to fortify those areas as well.”
He agreed that a nationwide co-ordinated approach to coastal erosion had merit, considering Australia has some of the most active coastlines in the world.
“For this event, we exhausted all 260 rock bags in Australia,” he said.
“There is a need for a much broader look at this, it’s not just restricted to Wamberal and North Entrance.”
He said a co-ordinated approach would be beneficial rather than letting councils fend for themselves.
Mr Murphy said the council has been taking engineering advice and the Department of Public Works would be assessing affected properties in Wamberal on Thursday.
“They will be back tomorrow to have a look at the impact of the recent storm event (last few days) and how those works have been holding up,” he said.
“There’s about 55 residents who have been displaced from their homes and are wanting to know when they can come back. We’ve also been in contact with the local residents from Wamberal and North Entrance. Clearly they are concerned about their properties.”
He once again stressed that the threat of further erosion remains.
“I’ll say it again, we’re not out of the woods yet,” he said.
“Whist the current weather over the past few days has not been as severe as what was proposed, we do note there is further bad weather. There’s a tropical low sitting off southeast Queensland. It may move down here.
“The current forecast is for further heavy swells probably Tuesday/Wednesday next week.
“We need to make sure we do the inspection and any more remedial works required in advance.”
He said the bags were initially predicted to take eight to nine minutes to place, however council staff managed to get it down to three minutes per bag.
Around 1100 tonnes of large rocks have also been placed at North Entrance to stabilise the bank.