Between these three, you can protect any shore from water erosion. info a new build now paid by the public purse. "There's no sense at all in building something like this from an engineering perspective. As mentioned in an earlier post, I place the blame fair and square at coastal engineers who design and approve these ill-fated designs. Links relating to the City of Sydney, and NSW in general - please read our rules before and the sick irony of the beach access sign detailing the seawall works with all "enquires to be made The root cause is building on the foredune. Also I'm suspecting at the lga level the up front investment to do this work can be a hard sell. Here is the DA for the wall. As the article states, in terms of erosion, vertical walls don't work and actually exacerbate the problem. I think the wall is actually a good warning of exactly what governments mean by "adaptation and mitigation"..expensive projects for the construction industry rather than sound ecological management. and I live 8 hours away. It would be fantastic to see an interview with someone from Many Hydrolics as they did all the Scientific modeling and have been very open in sharing their data. I do however feel there needs to be more separation regarding fact and opinion in your article. These are the taxpayer funded grants that LGAs will apply for, to repair the wall. Please enable it to continue. It didn't last long and within 12 hours the sand that was built up against the near finished first wall was 2/3rds washed away. Sounds like you are pretty deep in that world! My working assumption is that they have behaved unethically on this matter. Environmental vandalism or gross negligence? Rd: 7th Oct. 1912: c041070001: 1912: Z/SP/C25/1a: Collaroy Park Estate Narrabeen: No boundaries shown: 7th Oct. 1912: c041070002 [1915] Z/SP/C25/2 [plan of Collaroy] Government Rd, Sea View Pde, Collaroy Ave, Main Pittwater Rd, Jenkins Pde, Beach Rd . >>Really dumb idea. 42 online submissions ALL supporting the wall but many seem to think it would be a sloping rock construction. Seeing and continuing a precedent that the government should pay and protect small groups of private landholders while the property owner reap the benefit and profit of rocket fuel property prices. On the MP they blew the heads up and the erosion from Portsea front beach to the heads is crazy. After five years and four contests, the performance level at Kelly's Hot Tub hasn't evolved but instead gone the other way. Yes, blowie, I've yet to see anyone our age advocating for a soft solution. Such a shame that it's not like California or other US states where the owner has no right to protect their land from erosion etc. As I understand it, governments have been reluctant to purchase vulnerable properties because there will be so many of them and the public purse could never afford it. This is where I live. The thing is, the existing site was fine except a motorway was about to be built straight through it. From the last set of minutes from the Wamberal Seawall advisory Taskforce Nov 18 2021. Craig - we are expecting you to be down there at High Tide 11pm tonight with your Torch and Box Brownie for some more pics, Nah wait 'til tomorrow mornings high. I have to disagree. Avoiding these types of impacts has been part of state coastal management policy around the country for the past 30 years. Proven time and time and time again that sea walls do not work- period. Sounds like the beach will be off limits/ too dangerous to walk on for weeks until the NSW Beaches Council recovers the rusting rebarb & concrete waste scattered along the beach then? Around 80 percent of the cost will be shouldered by the property owners themselves while the remaining 20 percent will be jointly funded by the Northern Beaches Council and the NSW government. Establishment and set out of site survey control points. It's like companies using buybacks in a crisis. Whe I checked the link today on the second one it went to the first DA for the sloping rock wall, not the second one for the vertical concrete wall. What some consider the ugliest wall in Australia could soon be bigger, with residents pushing to extend the Collaroy seawall on Sydney's northern beaches. To my way of thinking, and with a working understanding of government process, the real issue is the approval process. 1. Or are they just doing it like politicians and getting consultants to advise them and simply ignoring it and doing what they want as they are not bound by law to take that advice. I avoid it because I dont think anyone truly is except for a small % of big players who manipulate the market (or act like the house) and the rest just ride the peaks and troughs. (This statement also doesn't specify what type of HARD structure. Could be some good entertainment next time some serious swell hits. My experience is that if the responsible authority wasn't involved in the valuation process they struggle to comprehend it, let alone see how it legitimately applies to their own patch via things like benefits transfer. Take a chill-pill mate, or possibly the whole packet as it appears you need them. I looked at the Bruun rule - i think it was roughly 10cm sea level rise = 1metre of beach vanishes? Collaroy resident Tony Cagorski lost more than 10 metres of his yard during the weekend's wild weather, undermining the foundations of his home. RAW footage from this week's extra-large swell at Peahi. What a pity as the potential for offshore reefs around there is really good. They are the real villains, as regardless of what anyone says or does, these idiots can allow or disallow engineering developments so the buck stops there! The second DA is now here. There's been a lot of work done to gain a better understanding of the value of the beach re both market and non-market economic benefits. This sets a very dangerous precedent for the rest of NSW. If the council are desperate to get a liability off their books then they have totally screwed it. Whether concrete castles or sand castles, buildings that close to a sand shoreline must be living on borrowed time. Point being that the experiment is a gimmick as it would be quite easily modelled in a software program given all geometric surfaces and the regular wave pattern. there is no excuse for purchasing a property on the beach in the last 30 years let alone 5 without an inkling of understanding of the risks. Ive already done some research but the swellnet knowledge base is one of the best in this area. Ignorant clown" The exception of course is if youre a donor to the LNP then a $3M block of land can be sold for $30M!!! and who can afford to pay the rates and any rate increases due to sea wall construction costs, which will leave rate payers on low and middle incomes moving toward rather than away from poverty. Am I missing something with the job title there? And without getting too political its a good chance that the persons who own these properties will be liberal voters so called free marketers who abhor the intervention of government in their day to day life.. except when it concerns their interests.. Nup it is anchored to the bedrock. The owners of those properties must have the most amazing collection of dirt on the political class. I was watching the houses on the cliffs at Bilgola the other day. My parents in NZ were excited when they took out bloodymangroves at the mouth of the estuary where they lived. For Sydney its not just beach suburbs. check out the beach erosion in Apollo bay as well Yes it is. It's folly to believe you can hold back the Pacific. They aint getting crushed. A sneaky second application, for the vertical wall was seen by very few. They were concerned the sand directly in front of the seawall would be washed away, eroding their beach, and, on Tuesday, that's exactly what happened. As a result, dried out sediments are carried by the wind towards the land. The protest was backed by the growing greens movement at the time and successfully pressured the then Warringah Council to knock back the protective walls. The project is part of the 1.3-km seawall proposed from South Narrabeen to Collaroy to protect both private and public assets in the suburb. Picture: Nearmap A subsequent image of Collaroy Beach from June 8, 2016. "Sea walls do nothing to ensure the ongoing conservation of the beach in front of them," Mr Donohoe told crowds. Look at offshore reefs around all the pacific islands. It will still be a bargain now compared to 60 years from now if they do the same. For the swellnet readers here's some background info, and here. Jeez. Premium ad-free surfcams, dawn surf reports, and more https://www.sydneycoastalcouncils.com.au/sites/default/files/JRCorkill_A https://www.surfline.com/surf-news/theyve-kerbed-guttered-narrabeen-beac https://www.scs.nsw.gov.au/soil-conservation-services-projects/collaroy- https://files.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/g https://files.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/collaroy-na https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/council/news/whats-happening-coll https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/peter-horton-coastal-engineer, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=144437777895204. https://eservices.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/ePlanning/live/Public/XC.Tr First red light! We had made a big mistake that would become bigger. Imagine how fun that'd be with your mates on a boog. 47 votes, 47 comments. They have access to and use a large suit of software modeling tools, but unfortinately a lot of them don't have outputs that non-scientists can get their head around [just numbers which are meaningless on the surface unless you understand what they represent.] Beaches like Bondi still had sand dunes and likely better banks all around. Plop! Other than buy the land and let nature take its course Im really interested to know if there are any other options - not brutal like this but that might be effective ? Meanwhile, those on the other side of the divide are fearing the precedent of a return to hard structures and what this might mean for the rest of the Collaroy and Narrabeen beachfront, not to mention Wamberal, Old Bar, Byron Bay, and any other area where bad planning policy has created a wicked problem. Owners, Council and 'engineersshame shame shame. It will improve beach access. This just a year ago was a nice Sandune. Thanks Stu, didn't even know such a thing existed here. Tonights high tide is 1.34m, tomorrow morning is 1.96m. heres a rad idea for you,dig canal from coast to central Australia which is considerably below sea level and flood the interior.could also be done in death valley USA.now that could be a wave pool!! Wonder if he has been down there in the last 2 days to check on status of wall? The Collaroy Beach seawall project was put to the test for the first time today with the arrival of a moderate to large east-northeast groundswell from ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth, coinciding with a king tide. Seawalls of this design have been shown - all over the world- to destroy beaches. Its like something out of a dystopian movie. How was Collaroy Beach made? In Japan, their solution is to just go bigger and higher . Your browser has JavaScript disabled. Rather than a natural ebb and flow of wave energy, a hard structure increases reflective energy and turbulence, making it difficult for sand to settle and accrete. The most notable benefit of sea walls is that they provide excellent protection against coastal erosion and flooding. That's the only thing stopping all the sand at the base of the wall getting washed away. This will give all all a better insight into what's going on with these projects. Now a 7 metre-high, concrete, vertical seawall has been built in front of private properties on Collaroy/Narrabeen beach. That's crazy stuff. Interesting to see if the slowed (design of) sand migration has had any knock-on effect for the likes of Tallebudgera- Burleigh and beyond. I imagine the ocean will eventually claw away under and around and over the structure. Apologies for misreading you. Surf Breaks Inc. Coming to a beach near you ! But thats about it . Is there a sea wall at Collaroy? Market value is driven by what people are willing to pay for it. I wonder if they're intended as some kind of device to absorb/dissipate energy rather than as trafficable stairs? As far as I know their job was to asses the designs given to them by the Coastal engineers, not to actually create any designs. Surely going to get all crazy reverb and backwash stripping their sand more rapidly as well. It's a travesty in so many ways and a very poor precedent for other parts of the coast which will be deemed vulnerable to sea level rise. A shame too, as it would probably be a good strategy. Guess where that temporary rock wall has ended up! LGA's apply for state and federal funding on offer for range of purposes. Children protest the building of a seawall at Collaroy-Narrabeen in 2002. Yep. Though with 80 properties at risk, and coastal real estate prices at a premium, they gave up on that approach in 2007. The works to protect private homes is being 80% funded by private owners, with Council and the NSW Government contributing 10% each. Everything else may go but that wall is here to stay. Brendan Donohoe says the beach has been "permanently disabled. The main issue is that the cables are protected in whatever is proposed. Instead they provide a caveat for bulldozing sand from low on the beach to higher on the beach in times of heightened storm activity - which only lowers the beachs natural defence system. https://www.sydneycoastalcouncils.com.au/sites/default/files/JRCorkill_A(2)_Prop_L_Rev_67-84.pdf, yes, Blindboy, I am guessing they had absolutely no input on the final [or initial] design what-so-ever as they were only used as a consulting service by the Coastal engineers. It didn't last long and within 12 hours the sand that was built up against the near finished first wall was 2/3rds washed away. First completed by the French in 1735, the Pondicherry seawall reaches a height of 27 feet above sea level. The seawall is probably built over them. https://eservices.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/ePlanning/live/Public/XC.Tr And this (Item 4) gives the reasons they changed to a wall. This issue is not exclusive to the NB or sea level rise or storm surge. Can't understand why more engineering research isn't focused on solutions further out in the water to dissipate the swell energy before it reaches the shore at full speed. PW road and any associated public infrastructure was used as a eligibility factor for public funding to protect the private properties. The Collaroy Beach coastline on May 6, 2016 before major storms swept the shoreline. The beginnings of a huge $25 million concrete wall in Collaroy on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Isolated, desk top engineering at its finest. An awkward situation, but only for one of the parties, as the Woz suspends the current Longboard World Champ. Action: Casey Johnston to forward initial site visit details to Taskforce members, noting there will be a further site visit as the project progresses". Staged retreats seem the best option, but also some councils are genuinely desperate to embrace the most apocalyptic climate change forecasts. I have limited state / lga experience but my perception is this broader thinking can get lost in short term self interest (putting it politely) as touched on by BB and others. At this point, no-one can say if any consultation occurred, though the cynical view is council ticked the box by distributing flyers to the immediate neighbours, all of whom would want similar works built to protect their properties. Wetsuits may never be the same again. The local community group has been protesting against a seawall for almost 30 years. Make his name famous: Peter Horton. A horizontal reef is also a "Hard Structure" yet it acts in a very different way to a Vertical Sea Wall such as the Collaroy one. A few years on when I visited I suggested a stroll along the cliffs at the estuary and they replied that its to dangerous now as theres been heaps of erosion for some reason. If you look a bit to the north you can see the relatively intact beach with a decent amount of sand. I guess that makes offshore options quite limited, So I'm a little confused as to why there are hardly any real solutions put forward to deal with coastal erosion in 2021, despite our huge body of scientific knowledge regarding the issue. Collaroy sea wall. The council will be the lone 'interest'. The reef/sand nourishment are both mainly designed to widen and protect the public property, ie the beach, in front of the buried seawall. It appears that because of the relative lack of access to PC, the equation would be out of kilter to begin with. Death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 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