‘No beach’: Fears surf spot doomed as Collaroy, Narrabeen remain split over seawall
One of Sydney’s most affluent beachside suburbs is still fiercely divided over a controversial seawall - and now a bombshell report has added fuel to the fire.
Environment
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A concrete wall installed at an iconic Sydney beach is yet to be tested by the kinds of storms that once nearly washed 10 homes into the sea – but it continues to divide the community.
Huge waves and king tides eroded 50m of Collaroy and Narrabeen beaches back in 2016, threatening to crumble mansions and prompting the creation of a much-maligned seawall.
Now new research commissioned by Surfrider Foundation predicts sea level rises of 66cm before the end of the century could wipe surf spots like North Narrabeen off the map.
“Going for a surf with your mates or taking your family to the beach to swim and enjoy the water is a part of the Australian way of life – but this research shows that this is at risk,” Surfrider Australia chief executive Steph Curley said.
“We have too much to lose not to take action on climate.”
The findings have again stirred debate on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, where opponents to the seawall built between Collaroy and Narrabeen say it will only speed up beach erosion.
Andrew Short, a coastal scientist who has visited every beach in Australia, explained that Collaroy had eroded and recovered for decades.
But he predicts the seawall will change how that cycle works, with the natural movement of sand from the dunes blocked by concrete.
“So whenever the beach erodes you’re going to end up with a seawall and no beach,” he said.
“Now at the moment the beach is not retreating but with sea level rise we’re anticipating it will start retreating in the coming decades.
“When that happens, you’ll end up with no beach more and more and more often until you get to a point where you won’t have any beach, you’ll just have a seawall.”
‘Forced into it’
To build the seven-metre high wall, affected homeowners were asked to chip in 80 per cent of the costs – totalling more than $300,000 each.
About 1.3km of walls along the beachfront have been planned, with 750m completed so far, but only a small strip protecting a row of homes has been done in concrete.
One owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said residents had wanted to explore other options such as the rock revetments now being built at other parts of the beach.
“We actually didn’t want a seawall. We wanted to be able to make sure that the rocks were safe, but the council wouldn’t let us do that,” they said.
“So we were sort of forced into building the wall and then paying for it.
“And they also insisted that we do it block by block, so you weren’t allowed to do it individually.”
The homeowner believed no matter what design was chosen for the wall, it was only a matter of time before mother nature made the properties untenable.
“It’s an active coastal dune that never should have been built on,” they said.
“I don’t think these houses are going to be here (long term) … even with the walls.
“It wasn’t really what we wanted. I mean it does make us feel a bit more secure.
“But the house still shakes because it’s built on sand.”
Another resident, however, said the wall was built in consultation with engineers and he was confident it would preserve homes for years to come.
“The issues raised appear to be misguided and misinformed,” he said.
“In four years the water has hit the wall once, so it’s not a seawall that is constantly being pounded by waves.”
A spokesperson for Northern Beaches Council said there had been a risk to properties along Collaory’s beachfront “since they were built back in the early 1900s”.
“There have been concrete and rock seawalls in place at many beaches across the Northern Beaches for decades, including Manly, Dee Why and Collaroy-Narrabeen,” they said.
“Beaches naturally undergo cycles of erosion or growth due to tides, wind and waves and these beaches have recovered following coastal erosion over time.
“Collaroy-Narrabeen Beach is a stable closed system, with decades of beach measurements showing no identifiable long-term trends in sand volume.”
Public vs private land
He said despite claims the wall would ruin parts of the beach, swimmers now used it as a shade during the hot days in summer.
“It’s built now … council agreed it was the best option,” he said. “I don’t understand why everyone is still harping on about it.”
Professor Short said the “dilemma” of choosing to protect private property over public land had set a “very bad precedent” for the rest of the coast.
“We’re going to have with climate rising sea so we’ll have we’re going to have the beaches eroding right around the coast,” he said.
“And if they decide to protect every house that is threatened, a lot of these beaches will just become rocky coast and seawalls.”
The council spokesperson said the storm that decimated the beach nine years ago meant action needed to be taken.
“The 2016 storms showed the devastating impacts for Collaroy Beach and beach residents if a do-nothing approach to coastal erosion is adopted.
“All coastal protection works have been subject to thorough environmental impact assessment including by independent coastal experts and engineers.”
Changes being felt already
His son Ben Short, a member of the North Narrabeen Boardriders Club, said that in his view “the surf quality has degraded over the last few years”.
“But that’s nothing to do with erosion,” he said, adding he hoped it was part of a cycle.
“My observation is the ocean and land temperature is the hottest we collectively remember and it feels like Sydney’s temperatures are more akin to the Gold Coast’s.”
Others locals who spoke to news.com.au this week had varying views on the fate of the beachfront.
Geoff has lived at Collaroy for 30 years and remembers when sand used to wash up on Pittwater Rd.
Now with houses and the seawall lining the coast, he feels the erosion has gotten worse.
“You have a look where the erosion is on the beach here, there’s not beach return,” he said seated near the seawall.
“There’s not much sand here really, compared to what it used to be.”
He said the prospect of losing more sand as sea levels rise was “pretty daunting” for local surfers, fisherman and beachgoers. Geoff also is not a fan of the seawall’s vertical design.
“I just don’t agree with it. I mean, they could have done a better wall. Put it that way … apart from the fact it looks ugly.”
Todd Hammond fishes at Collaroy, across the road from where he has lived for the past 15 years.
‘Nothing you can do’
He said the wall’s effects had meant locals sometimes can’t walk the length of the beach but it was “unavoidable” to avoid rising seas in the future.
“It’s definitely holding everything back. So it’s definitely working, a couple of years ago the whole beach would be washed away,” Mr Hammond said.
“A lot of people don’t like it but I don’t seem to find it changes too much.”
Darcie has been surfing breaks at Narrabeen and Collaroy for close to a decade and says she has been concerned about how the wall would impact the natural integrity of the beach.
“I remember when they first built it (the seawall), there was a massive amount of erosion further at that end of the beach,” she said.
“And it was like poorly timed because there was a lot of big swells that came through at a similar time, and it just caused a lot of sand to just get dragged out.
“I think recently the conditions have been a bit calmer. There’s been more sand that sort of come back in and sort of helped the situation, but I don’t think that’s going to mitigate the long-term impacts at all.”
Mick said he had lived in the area for 50 years but discussions about beach erosion had only become a “big thing” in the last 15 years.
“Before there was all the development, close to the sand dunes, it wasn’t a drama.”
Asked about his thoughts on how climate change could alter the coastline, he said “what goes around comes around”.
“Things go in cycles. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Professor Short said the fate facing Narrabeen and Collaroy was not isolated to the Northern Beaches, with rising sea levels set to be a “national problem in the future”.
“It already is – every state has places at risk, and it’s going to be exacerbated by rising sea level,” he said.
“And the only way to really solve it is to get federal intervention, because it’s a quite expensive problem.”
Originally published as ‘No beach’: Fears surf spot doomed as Collaroy, Narrabeen remain split over seawall
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