Communities along the Midwest coast of Western Australia are bracing for what could be a devastating winter as erosion eats away at their beaches. In the community of Lancelin, an hour north of Perth, the situation has become so serious that locals worry the town may not survive the season. According to residents, around 50 metres of beachfront have disappeared in just 15 months. The pace of the loss has left people fearful about what the coming storms will bring.
The immediate concern is a fragile dune that is all that stands between the ocean and the town. Residents estimate there are only about four to five metres of that dune left before it breaks. As one local put it, once that barrier breaks, the community is in a world of pain. Business owner Glen Trebilcock is among those trying to hold the line, spending around 10,000 dollars filling sandbags in a desperate bid to protect his property.
For those on the front line, time is the enemy. Trebilcock warned that it would only take another couple of storms like the one that hit last weekend for the situation to become catastrophic. He painted a stark picture of what could happen if the dune gives way, leaving him effectively sitting on the waterfront. The fear is that a single bad weekend of weather could undo what little protection remains.
Locals say they need urgent help from the state government, but they feel the response has been far too slow. According to residents, the government wants to investigate why the erosion is happening, a process that could take up to 18 months. For communities watching the sea advance week by week, that timeline is simply not workable. As one resident bluntly put it, they do not have that kind of time.
The local council has been calling for longer-term solutions, but says its hands are tied by the way support is structured. According to the council, the available funding can only be used either for sand or for design work, and nothing else. In their view, that leaves them without any real solutions to a problem that is accelerating. The frustration is that money is being spent without addressing the underlying threat.
The cost of stopgap measures has already become clear. Last July, the Western Australian state government spent 150,000 dollars to stabilise a single dune. Less than a year later, residents say, all of that work has been washed away. The episode has reinforced fears that piecemeal spending cannot keep up with the scale of the erosion now hitting the coast.
Lancelin is far from an isolated case, with communities up and down the WA coast calling on the state for urgent help this winter. Storm surges have eaten away beaches in Horrocks and forced another in Geraldton to close, while in Port Denison millions of dollars worth of businesses, community spaces and retirement homes are now at risk. Experts estimate it could cost up to a billion dollars to protect the coastline. With the level of infrastructure involved, some warn that managed retreat, however emotive, may ultimately be the only option.