“Other vulnerable coastal communities are watching on with interest – could giant walls protect them too?”

The privately-built $3.2 million sea wall at Sydney’s Collaroy goes to the heart of a vexed question: who really owns our beaches?

We love our beaches in this country and consider it a fundamental right to access any part of our vast sandy shoreline because it belongs to us all. So when residents at an erosion-prone beach in Sydney built a $3.2 million vertical concrete mega-wall it was always going to create angst. The landholders say they have a right to protect their properties while other residents say that, aesthetics aside, it has eaten into the beach and may cause, rather than mitigate, further erosion.

As today’s cover story shows, this isn’t just an issue for properties at Collaroy on the Northern Beaches. Other vulnerable coastal communities are watching on with interest – could giant walls protect them too?