Stockton beach protest: Homes, roads under threat from erosion as residents push for action
SEE ALL PICS! Continued inaction on severe erosion at Stockton Beach has become a major worry, with the town already losing its childcare centre, cafe and some of the caravan park
Newcastle
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Continued inaction on severe erosion saw more than 2,000 people gather for the Save Stockton Beach red line protest on Sunday.
Already devastation has hit, with erosion causing massive loss of assets from the local child care centre to the forced closure of Lexie’s on the Beach cafe and the front row of the popular caravan park.
Now the local surf club, roads and several homes are under threat.
“I’m just really upset what is happening to our whole environment,” resident Toni Mulholland said.
“We’ve lost a kindy, a cafe, we’ve lost being able to do nippers, it’s not just the sand, it’s the community we’re losing, it’s devastating.”
Stockton real estate agent Lucas Graham said there’s been inaction for way too long.
“I believe there has been a plan put in place behind the scenes and the community has not been told or advised as to the direction, but we know about it,” Mr Graham said.
“We’re not silly even though we’ve been treated that way. For us it’s drawing a line in the sand. We will not take this.
“Erosion is one of those things we’re all faced with and I’m not sure why the government are not acting to rectify what we can and have new technologies to combat it.”
The community is fighting for a rapid government approved sand nourishment program to replace the natural one lost by the installation of the harbour.
“We are facing what is an outcome from the ports that put the breakwalls in, and extensions have definitely created the flow of the ocean to change and unfortunately our sand is dragged off at a much quicker rather than just erosion,” Mr Graham added.
“It is a man made problem. If we didn’t have the breakwalls there, we wouldn’t be facing the problem anywhere near as bad as we are.
“When I was a kid growing up here, all we used to do was take a towel with us and run about 50-80 metres through the saltbushes just to be able to see the ocean, and then the beach is another 100 metres or more from there down to the water.
“Now it’s a cliff off the edge, it is a massive change, it’s a beachside suburb without a beach.
“It’s hurting people everywhere, a lot of people use Stockton, they use the beach and have been coming here a long time.”
Jeanette Dib, a resident since 1978 said “We feel so betrayed about leaving this horrible problem for so long, they’ve known about it since the 60s. It’s at crisis point now.”
