We have a long-standing challenge with sand along our beautiful coastline, with sand required to replenish our City’s vulnerable beaches to counter long term littoral drift. This erosion started with West Beach and Henley South, but is now extending to Henley and other critically affected areas at Semaphore Park. Sand levels across our beaches have dropped over a number of years, with over 100,000 cubic metres per year lost from our coast in Charles Sturt as the sand moves northward.

Currently, some of our beach access ways (ramps and stairways) are essentially hanging in mid-air due to the significant erosion. We are doing our best to open up access ways where we can, looking at a range of temporary solutions while we wait for the State Government and Department of Environment & Water to address this acute sand issue. It is important people do not access the beaches through the dunes and damage the plants that stabilise and hold our dunes together.

This week, our CEO Paul Sutton spoke to Caroline Winter from ABC Radio Adelaide and called on the State Government to act quickly to provide an interim solution that puts a mass of sand into our most damaged areas to address significant erosion.

“Our greatest fear is that the review, announced by the government on taking office, and which only last week had its expert supervising panel announced, will take too long. We need to allocate budget to get the sand on the beach so that we can actually prevent more damage,” CEO Paul Sutton said.

Listen to the full interview here (beginning at 2hr 34min 35sec).