Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Silverleaves Beach, Cowes

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (19:28): (1317) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Environment, and it relates to a Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action funding commitment for the Cowes community. Shoreline setback from coastal erosion has been heavily impacting the Silverleaves community at Cowes at an alarming rate. A bird’s-eye view indicates that the shoreline has eroded at an accelerated rate in the last two or three years of up to 8 metres a year. There is a critical area, a stretch of about 2 kilometres from the Silverleaves coastline. It starts west of Coghlan Road and it encompasses the east of Cowes beach at the sandy spit, extending to Observation Point.

Last week my colleague and the Shadow Minister for Water Tim McCurdy and I visited and spoke with residents Jude Doyle, Natalie Gray and Ken Hailey about the urgency of this situation. We stood near one of the homes and saw how the erosion was just eating in and could certainly undermine homes and infrastructure there. I was also contacted by Will Dwyer. Will is a member of the Silverleaves conservation society. They have been doing a power of work in collaboration with the department, but there is a significant urgency about protecting that shoreline. The whole idea is temporary, urgent and immediate – it is called a geotextile revetment, and it is basically sandbagging the area. Clearly there needs to be a greater level of protective works, adaptation and protection, but at this point in time they are desperate because if these sandbags are not implemented by the end of summer, when we have got high tides in autumn and northerly gales in winter, you are going to see some serious erosion and infrastructure and homes being taken away.

The government has made a commitment – this is the perverse thing – to implement this urgent action, but at the moment there has been no funding given for this action. There is certainly, as I said, a long-term adaptation pathway and coastal protection, and we see that across the board. We see it also at Inverloch along the Inverloch surf beach, and it seems to be, very unfortunately, that retreat is the option there, and that is not good enough. The immediate action I seek is that the minister provide the funding for these technical sandbags and save this community.