Australia Weather News

Beach shack owners in South Australia say urgent action is needed, after storm erosion has put their properties at risk of falling into the sea.

Residents at Point Turton on the Yorke Peninsula — a community of holiday shacks with some permanent residents — say repair work is urgently needed to a section of coastline damaged by a storm event in May.

Point Turton Ratepayers Association representative Anne Collins said there was now only a thin strip of land between the shacks and the sea.

"The erosion of the cliff is in an emergency state because if it erodes any more then it's quite possible that there are houses along there that may not have any cliff left," she said.

"If we get more northerly winds and king tides it's quite possible that we will lose more of our cliff front and houses could slide down off the cliff, into the sea."

Residents facing costs to repair the coastline

The majority of damage to the coastline occurred after a king tide and storm event swept through South Australia in May, damaging four jetties in Adelaide as well as the Port Germein Jetty and coastal infrastructure in Moonta Bay.

While these were repaired using public money, the responsibility to pay for repairs in Point Turton has fallen on residents.

Alan Holmes, the presiding member of the Coastal Protection Board, said while the work was needed as a matter of urgency, the board did not have a liability in relation to the damage.

"What makes this particularly problematic is that it's largely in the hands of the land holders affected," Mr Holmes said.

"There's no legal or regulatory dimension to that at all … it's a common sense approach that we've got a serious problem that needs dealing with fairly quickly."

Residents from the 14 affected blocks have asked the Yorke Peninsula Council to provide them with a loan of $650,000 for the construction of a seawall.

Ms Collins said some owners would struggle to cover the expense involved.

"For a lot of people, it's something that their families owned," she said.

"They might own this property but you know they're not millionaires."

Repairs urgently needed

Ms Collins said even if the seawall construction was fast-tracked, the process could take about eight months to complete.

"It should take only two months for approval but we need to still wait for plans to be drawn up, tenders and then we've got to get back to the council to check whether they can lend us the money," Ms Collins said.

"There are people who want it done tomorrow.

"King tides can happen at any time — the longer it goes, the more risk there is."

Ms Collins said the situation was further complicated because some of the coastline was Crown land.

"There's 140 meters of Crown land [along the coastline] and we're just expected to cover that ourselves," she said.

"It's really not our land that's disappearing but we obviously don't want that to disappear or we will lose our house."

The Yorke Peninsula Council said it was considering a model where the council provided funding for repairs in exchange for residents paying higher rates over several years to cover the loan.

Yorke Peninsula Council chief executive officer Andrew Cameron said council staff had discussed this option with Point Turton residents and would be seeking further information on the seawall project.

"Prior to formally taking the request to council for consideration, we have requested that the residents' group formalise detailed engineered designs and seek development approval with detailed costings for the project," he said.

"Any consideration of raising a separate rate will require detailed engagement with all of the affected land owners, seeking their views and feedback on the proposal."

ABC