Balcombe Creek Estuary Boardwalk, Mount Martha still closed a year after storm damage
Frustrated locals are calling for a much loved Mount Martha landmark to be repaired and reopened after storm damage forced its part closure more than a year ago.
South East
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An iconic Mornington Peninsula boardwalk is still partly closed, a year after being smashed by a month’s rain in just six hours.
The 3.5km Balcombe Creek Estuary boardwalk in Mount Martha was significantly damaged when a rain bomb hit the peninsula on November 14, 2022.
Sections of the boardwalk buckled and broke when the creek flooded.
Since the storms, the eastern end of the boardwalk, which continues into The Briars conservation park, has been fenced off.
The wooden boardwalk was built in 1990s by the Rotary Club of Mount Martha and then handed over to the shire to manage.
Rotary president Anne Shaw said the structure was a “highly valued asset” and needed to be repaired and reopened.
“It is an iconic landmark in Mount Martha and as an asset of the council must be restored,” Ms Shaw said.
Her plea was echoed by locals who took to social media to discuss the lack of action on fixing the closed section of the boardwalk.
Shane Sauvarin said the amount of broken infrastructure across the shire was “beyond pathetic”.
“If this performance was given in the corporate world, no one would be remaining,” he posted.
Craig Sumner agreed and called for more accountability on how council rates were spent.
“Repairing local infrastructure would be a good start,” he posted.
However, other locals said it was “easy” to blame the council and suggested bigger issues including climate change were at play.
Adrian Burrage said the increasing severity and frequency of big storm events were “wiping out big bits of infrastructure.
“The impact of climate change is real, and keeping up with the cost of large scale events ruining costly facilities is a huge challenge, for all councils, not just Mornington Peninsula Shire,” he posted.
“We’ve seen many building companies go into liquidation this last 12 months due to spiralling costs.
“The Shire is not immune to the same problems and has to identify its priorities.”
A council spokesman said the shire had quickly repaired minor damage to the boardwalk between the Esplanade and Nepean Highway in 2022, without having to close the walkway.
However, the section between Nepean Highway and The Briars car park was “severely damaged and the structure had been “completely dismantled or the footing undermined and misaligned”.
“Apart from the rebuilding cost, this will require specialised knowledge to minimise the impact on the sensitive estuary environment, as well as structural engineering design and approval from Melbourne Water,” they said.
