The first Wamberal resident to lose his home to the sea in 1978 says he has been waiting more than 40 years for the ocean to claim further victims, as residents consider a class action over the partial collapse of waterfront properties on Friday.
Coastal erosion is seen from the air over Ocean View Drive at Wamberal on Saturday. Credit:AAP
Luxury residences along Ocean View Drive were evacuated after a low pressure system pounded the coast on Thursday night, causing two properties to partially collapse and leaving others teetering on the brink of the ocean.
A Central Coast Council spokesperson said public works engineers spent Saturday assessing the damage, which would determine the next "protective actions" taken by authorities.
But Ocean View Drive resident Warren Hughes blamed council for the residents’ woes since 2016, when the strip was last battered by severe storms.
He accused Central Coast Council of declining to construct a sea wall and failing to take advantage of NSW government funding on offer for such a project, as well as preventing residents from taking any steps privately to protect their homes.
That position only changed on Saturday when council conceded residents could do whatever was necessary to protect their homes, Mr Hughes said, labelling the council’s past actions “absurd” and “insane”.
“I put sandbags in and the council threatened to sue me for using the wrong fabric on the sandbag,” he said.
“We're considering a class action because of the sheer expense.”
It came as a former council manager told the Sun-Herald he was unsurprised at the severity of the erosion, after leading a council push for a revetment wall in the early 2000s that failed when requests for state government funding were knocked back.
"People have got very short memories when it comes to this sort of thing," said Garry Egger, who "lost everything" when his mother’s home fell into the sea in huge surf in 1978.
"The beach does recover quite quick and it looks as if it’s perfectly safe. But it only needs one unusual and big storm."
Mr Egger, now of Fairlight, unsuccessfully sued Gosford Council over rocks that had been placed in front of a neighbouring property, that he argued contributed to the destruction of his mother’s home.
"I have every right to be bitter with the council but to be honest I don’t think it’s the council’s fault. These buildings never should have been built in the first place," he said.
Erosion due to wild weather at Wamberal on the Central Coast.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
"Unless you wall the whole beach from one end to the other, like at Manly and Bondi, any object you put down will cause the erosion to come around the side of it in a storm."
Gosford Council commissioned a series of reports and studies on the erosion in the 1990s.
In 2003 the council’s then environmental education and protection manager Gary Chestnut said that without any intervention the beachfront would overwhelm the houses along Ocean View Drive within 50 years.
Mr Chestnut said he was involved in an appeal to two different ministers for state government funding after the council resolved to build a revetment wall in 2004 following community consultation.
The 1.4-kilometre wall would be buried under the sand and could "bend and absorb the energy of the waves", Mr Chestnut said.
"The cost was going to be shared between the council, the land owners and the state government," Mr Chestnut said. "The state government declined to fund it."
He said the revetment wall could no longer be constructed because of the subsequent severe erosion.
"It wasn’t designed to be constructed in an active sea front," he said.
Gosford Council commissioned a series of reports and studies on the erosion in the 1990s.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
After another severe storm lashed the strip in 2016, a group of Ocean View Drive residents worked up their own plans for a smaller sea wall, which were reportedly rejected by a coastal panel that had jurisdiction over the matter.
The panel has since been disbanded.
Karen Coleman, a litigation lawyer with King & Wood Mallesons, has represented the Wamberal land owners in multiple disputes.
"It is a common frustration along the NSW coastline that residents can't get permission to protect their own properties from severe storm events when they occur," she said.
"This is not just a one-off."
Beach access had been closed and the council requested members of the public – including "sightseers" – stay away so emergency and essential services could do their work.
Central Coast mayor Lisa Matthews has called an extraordinary meeting for Monday to address the "unfolding crisis".
Get our Morning & Evening Edition newsletters
Carrie Fellner is an investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Most Viewed in National
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMikAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5zbWguY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL25zdy90aG9zZS1ob21lcy1zaG91bGQtbmV2ZXItaGF2ZS1iZWVuLWJ1aWx0LXRoZS00MC15ZWFyLXNhZ2EtYmVoaW5kLXdhbWJlcmFsLWJlYWNoLWVyb3Npb24tMjAyMDA3MTgtcDU1ZGFvLmh0bWzSAZABaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuc21oLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9uc3cvdGhvc2UtaG9tZXMtc2hvdWxkLW5ldmVyLWhhdmUtYmVlbi1idWlsdC10aGUtNDAteWVhci1zYWdhLWJlaGluZC13YW1iZXJhbC1iZWFjaC1lcm9zaW9uLTIwMjAwNzE4LXA1NWRhby5odG1s?oc=5
2020-07-18 07:55:00Z
52780931834720
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "'Those homes should never have been built': The 40-year saga behind Wamberal beach erosion - Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment