Beach Renourishment should be a Key Part of Cliff Stabilization Works on Foreshore at Royal Avenue, Sandringham.

PORT PHILLIP CONSERVATION COUNCIL INC.

Tel +61393769442, +61429176725 34 Farnham Street, FLEMINGTON VIC 3031

A0020093K Victoria www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip

ABN 46 291 176 191 1st June 2004

Hon. John Thwaites MLA
Minister for the Environment
1 Treasury Place
MELBOURNE VIC 3002

Dear Mr Thwaites,

Beach Renourishment should be a Key Part of Cliff Stabilization Works on Foreshore at Royal Avenue, Sandringham.

Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc, a federation of 15 conservation organizations around Port Phillip, is aware of the need for works to occur to stabilize and render safe the eroding cliff on the foreshore at the end of Royal Avenue, Sandringham. PPCC Inc. agrees that work is necessary, but it considers that the present proposal for a 300 metre long revetment parallel to the toe of the cliff, without any measures to maintain and protect renourishment of the beach in front of the revetment, is seriously inadequate. We note that the removal of vegetation presently on the cliff face to enable new, dense planting to better consolidate the cliff is expected to be approved soon.

With the success and popularity of recent beach renourishment projects it is now recognized that regaining, or maintaining, a sandy beach is a highly desirable component of coast protection works adjacent to very valuable real estate, such as that alongside the Sandringham foreshore. The enhancement of formerly eroded beaches, for walkers and swimmers alike, such as those

in Beaumaris Bay, between Mundy Street and Naples Road, Mentone, where there is a rock revetment along the toe of the cliff as a security measure, but it is hidden by the successful sand replenishment at what has become a popular and attractive beach;
in Quiet Corner, between McGregor and Central Avenues, Black Rock, where there is a very much narrower coastal reserve than at Royal Avenue, but satisfactory protection has been achieved by sand replenishment alone, as there are naturally rocky anchor areas at each end of this beach; and
on both the Brighton and the Hampton sides of New Street, where rock groynes at right angles to the coast have been accepted as the only practicable solution,

attests to the value that the investment in beach renourishment has made to those areas.

PPCC Inc. considers that some use of rock groynes at right angles to the coast is preferable to the use of a parallel rock revetment alone, as presently proposed. We recognize that this would at least double the present large cost, but it seems obvious that the ratio of cost to benefit would be very much lower if the total result included a parallel revetment hidden by sand, as at Mentone above, as well as a 300 metre stretch of sandy beach, even though two or three rock groynes might have to be accepted as well. Trees instead of the unsealed carpark and the grass space on the clifftop would be advisable to reduce destabilizing seepage from heavy rains, and they would be cheaper to maintain.

The considerable revenue that the Victorian Government gains from real estate taxes in those areas has, in great part, been produced by gains in value in those areas once formerly bleak denuded beaches were transformed into pleasant, more attractive sections of coast by sand renourishment. Governments and municipalities have long recognized that the maintenance of open space parks by watering and mowing etc. is a worthwhile cost for an urban community. Because government planning has made it impracticable to let the coast erode naturally, as would occur in a National Park, it is incumbent on governments to pay the costs of making our marvellous foreshore assets worthwhile rather than let them lapse into cold bleak stretches of boulders lapped by the sea, and infested with rubbish and vermin.

Yours sincerely,

Jennifer Hassell, Secretary PPCC Inc.