Thursday, 10 February 2022

Inverloch surf beach

Ms BURNETT-WAKE (Eastern Victoria) (22:18): (1736) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, and it concerns the erosion of Inverloch beach over the last decade. Minister, on 12 January I joined hundreds of passionate Inverloch residents in gathering for the Rally ‘Round Our Dunes event at Inverloch beach. Tragically the beach has endured dramatic erosion over the past 10 years, with up to 70 metres of the vegetated dune having been swept away. The total loss of the dune is now over 8 hectares and is equivalent to an area of 4½ MCGs. Even worse, if the current rate of erosion continues without intervention, the remaining dunes will most likely be gone in around four years. The loss of the beach and its dunes would have a devastating impact on residents, visitors and the local economy as well as the natural environment. The only action that the government has taken so far was to fund a report back in 2019 on management strategies. Three years later this report has still not been delivered, and during that time a further 10 metres of dune has been lost out to sea.

The South Gippsland Conservation Society has closely followed this issue for years and has released a slow-impact, short-term dune management proposal for the Wreck Creek and Flat Rocks sections of Inverloch surf beach, the two sections of coastline that are currently at most risk. The proposed program, developed in collaboration with Professor Rodger Tomlinson, foundation director of the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management, is based around restoring the dunes over the 325-metre-long Wreck Creek section of coastline to what existed in 2018.

The approach of providing short-term protection while longer term planning is underway has been followed at other at-risk Victorian beaches, such as Apollo Bay, as this approach is not new, and it works. The proposed restoration would involve transporting the sand from the Point Norman and Point Hughes sandbar barriers at Andersons Inlet to the Inverloch beach, delaying the Wreck Creek estuary and lagoon system from being washed away during future storm surges. This renourishment is urgently needed before the onset of the autumn and winter storm swells. Therefore my adjournment issue to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change is very clear: the action is to urgently pledge funding for the immediate restoration of the Inverloch beach dunes.