Sydney wild weather: Collaroy woman whose house is ‘hanging on a knife’s edge’ says disaster should have been avoided

THE owner of a home hanging on a ‘knife’s edge’, Zaza Silk, has lashed out at the council for failing to build a protective sea wall. An urn containing her mother’s ashes had been buried in her garden.

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THE owner of a beachfront home hanging on a “knife’s edge” has lashed out at the Northern Beaches Council for not acting to put a preventive sea wall in place years ago.

Zaza Silk, whose front garden and the foundations of her house were completely eroded by large swells, told the Manly Daily she was “totally in shock” after her family of five were evacuated from their home on Sunday night.

Resident Zaza Silk nearly collapses when she sees her home. Picture: John Grainger

Ms Silk’s house has lost it’s deck - and has a neighbours pool washed up where the yard once was. Picture: Toby Zerna

“I feel sick … I feel physically that I am standing in the edge of a cliff,” she said.

“It is that feeling of oh my God and the unknown, and knowing that this could have been avoided,” she said.

“It is so frustrating knowing that this could have been avoided, the council has been talking for such a long time about putting a sea wall up, they have never done anything about it.

“They have just been dragging their feet. It is inexcusable, it is not like they didn’t know about it … they have been talking about it for years and years.”

The scene at Collaroy - Ms Silk’s house is behind the pool. Picture: Britta Campion

She said they were briefly allowed to re-enter their home to assess damage and gather up any necessary items, but may not been allowed back in for another three days.

“I was at home during the day … I was watching as the garden disappeared under my feet. It was horrific. And you keep thinking it can’t get any closer … I had my mother buried in her urn in the garden she was washed out to sea and my dog buried in the garden he was washed out to sea,” she said.

A man stands inside the destroyed Beach Club at Collaroy. Picture: AAP

The row of houses along Pittwater Rd at Collaroy that suffered the most damage. Picture: Toby Zerna

What were once backyards in Collaroy. Picture: AFP

The underlying beach below her double storey house’s balcony had completely disappeared yesterday morning, and she feared the worst with high tide scheduled to come again late last night.

She said the idea of her family home, purchased three years ago, crumbling was too much to bare.

“Your legs start getting weak, you start shaking and you want to vomit, all you can do you go to a friends house, and then you have a night not been able to sleep, visualising your place floating out to sea … luckily it didn’t.

“It makes you sick in your stomach, you don’t know what the future holds, it is your house, it is what everything you have invested in.”

If they are able to salvage their house, Ms Silk said she was uncertain if they would stay.

“This was a property I wanted to be in the family from generation to generation, it is a dream house in a dream location,” she said.

A surfer leaps past the ruined beach club. Picture: AFP

A surfer takes advantage of the giant swells at Collaroy. Picture: AFP

Northern Beaches Council general manager Mark Ferguson said there had been a strong amount of opposition in the past to building a sea wall in that area.

“In this particular case, the council has prepared a coastal zone management plan which identifies a sea wall as the best solution to the problem,” he said.

“Given it is in between two existing sea walls it creates a point of strong penetration with wave energy ... a sea wall is considered by our technical staff as the best solution.”

While the last few years have been spent creating a management plan, it has not progressed because the sea wall design had not been planned, largely because a way of funding it has not come forward.

Premier Mike Baird surveys the damage at Collaroy with Brad Hazzard, member for Wakehurst. Picture: John Grainger.

“There has been a fair bit of strong opposition to sea walls just being put in without proper planning on the Collaroy Beachfront and elsewhere,” Mr Ferguson said,

“The councillors and the community has for a long time, not been supportive of sea walls.

“One of the considerations the council has had was whether to build it on private or public land, the council formed the view that these sea walls wouldn’t be on public land, they should be on private land ... the property owners have unanimously not been in favour of it

“Land owners weren’t in support of funding it and the council had no mechanism to force them to fund it.”

Collaroy Surf Club had waves pass through the closed doors. Picture: John Grainger

Residents gather at the beachfront in Collaroy. Picture: AFP

Planning Minister Rob Stokes indicated that a sea wall would be coming.

“There are a number of sea walls along this stretch of the coast that have been built over a series of time.

“I understand those walls are not completed, part of the reason is council has not had a coastal zone management plan.

“They now have a coastal zone management plan that's been signed off and a few weeks ago we announced $83.6m to meet that funding gap to make sure that walls can be provided.

Mr Stokes stressed the importance of design in the sea wall process.

“It’s really important for councils to plan how funding can actually work both for owners and the community.

“The problem with sea walls is if they’re not properly designed, you can enhance edge effects to prop on either side and you can end up losing the beach. It’s really important we design these structures very well.”