By Philip Heath
IT FEELS like the death of an old friend – another magnificent 80-plus-year-old coast banksia at Flat Rocks, Inverloch, has finally succumbed to the retreating coastline and crashed into the ocean. Like its neighbours, it used to sit happily at the back of the dunes in the coastal reserve. After 10 years of sustained coastline erosion, it was the only living thing that stood between the ocean and Cape Paterson Road.
It might have lasted longer had it had a helping hand, but no, it was left to fend for itself, and then it was really only a matter of time …
IT FEELS like the death of an old friend – another magnificent 80-plus-year-old coast banksia at Flat Rocks, Inverloch, has finally succumbed to the retreating coastline and crashed into the ocean. Like its neighbours, it used to sit happily at the back of the dunes in the coastal reserve. After 10 years of sustained coastline erosion, it was the only living thing that stood between the ocean and Cape Paterson Road.
It might have lasted longer had it had a helping hand, but no, it was left to fend for itself, and then it was really only a matter of time …
The situation at Flat Rocks is a local example of the phenomenon of “coastal squeeze”, where foreshore reserves are squeezed between rising sea levels and fixed land boundaries, in this case, the Cape Paterson Road.
A 2020 report by the Victorian Environment Assessment Council found that 75 per cent of Victorian coastal reserves are at risk of a 20cm sea level rise by 2040. A recent report by the Victorian Marine and Coastal Council identifies that damage to coastal reserves could amount to 40 per cent of the total physical and economic cost of sea level rise and storm surge through to 2100.
As identified in both the above reports, Victoria’s coastal reserves contain significant ecological values and play an important role in maintaining ecological connectivity between larger habitat patches.
A 2019 study by Alison Oates for South Gippsland Conservation Society’s (SGCS) Inverloch Coastal Resilience Project (ICRP) documented the ecological values of the coastal reserve at Inverloch. It found that the reserve featured a diverse ecology, with eight Ecological Vegetation Classes, including four threatened coastal vegetation species. The report also highlighted the important role the reserve played in maintaining biodiversity through its function as an east-west biolink, as recognised in the Bass Coast Shire Council’s Biodiversity Biolinks Plan 2018.
A 2020 report by the Victorian Environment Assessment Council found that 75 per cent of Victorian coastal reserves are at risk of a 20cm sea level rise by 2040. A recent report by the Victorian Marine and Coastal Council identifies that damage to coastal reserves could amount to 40 per cent of the total physical and economic cost of sea level rise and storm surge through to 2100.
As identified in both the above reports, Victoria’s coastal reserves contain significant ecological values and play an important role in maintaining ecological connectivity between larger habitat patches.
A 2019 study by Alison Oates for South Gippsland Conservation Society’s (SGCS) Inverloch Coastal Resilience Project (ICRP) documented the ecological values of the coastal reserve at Inverloch. It found that the reserve featured a diverse ecology, with eight Ecological Vegetation Classes, including four threatened coastal vegetation species. The report also highlighted the important role the reserve played in maintaining biodiversity through its function as an east-west biolink, as recognised in the Bass Coast Shire Council’s Biodiversity Biolinks Plan 2018.
The Inverloch Surf Beach has receded by between 40 and 70 metres since 2012.
Monitoring undertaken by SGCS volunteers has revealed that the coastline over the two-kilometre length of Inverloch Surf Beach, between Flat Rocks and Point Norman, has receded by between 40 and 70 metres since 2012. This has resulted in over eight hectares of coastal dune vegetation being swept away, representing more than 50 per cent of what existed in 2012. In his 2019 report for ICRP, geomorphologist Neville Rosengren assessed these changes as the most rapid change recorded along the Victorian coastline in European historical times. Without intervention, the biolink function will cease, as more and wider gaps appear, such as what is occurring at Flat Rocks.
Fortunately, the rate of coastline recession that occurred between 2012-2019 slowed over the past few years, due to the more favourable meteorological conditions that have prevailed: more frequent northerlies and easterlies have meant a reduction in the number of erosion-inducing south-westerly storm surges. This has provided some relief as investigations by the Victorian Government’s Cape to Cape Resilience Project (C2CRP) team has continued. It also may have given a false sense that urgent action was no longer a high priority.
Storm surges over the winter have highlighted just how vulnerable the remaining dunes are to a return to more frequent south-westerly storm surges that occurred so frequently between 2012 and 2019. Our July beach monitoring survey revealed a 300mm drop in sand levels, with the foredunes that had started to rebuild over last summer having been cut into. With the possibility of more storm surges over the next few months, and a return to El Nino conditions this summer, SGCS reiterates our call for the Victorian Government to give high priority to the rapid conclusion of the C2CRP and a funding commitment to enable early implementation of its key findings.
Having participated throughout the C2CRP process, and examined the options under consideration, SGCS has concluded that increasing the resilience of the coastal reserve by large-scale renourishment, supported by active dune management, revegetation and wet sand fencing, provides the best means of sustaining the remaining dunes through to 2040, giving more time for long-term climate adaptation pathways to be progressed. The short-listed engineering options under consideration don’t appear to be appropriate for Inverloch, and could result in unintended consequences given the complex coastal process relationships that exist between the Surf Beach and Anderson Inlet. A rock wall would result in the lowering of sand levels and eventual loss of the Surf Beach, and groynes or a nearshore breakwater would completely change the highly valued, natural character of the Surf Beach.
With the draft Cape to Cape Resilience Plan anticipated to be put on public exhibition later this year, it is vital that all those who care for the future of our coastal reserve, and the Surf Beach more broadly, take the opportunity to highlight the urgent need for appropriate climate adaptation action.
Philip Heath is team leader of the Inverloch Coastal Resilience Project for the South Gippsland Conservation Society. Reports and video documentaries undertaken for the project are available at www.sgcs.org.au.
Fortunately, the rate of coastline recession that occurred between 2012-2019 slowed over the past few years, due to the more favourable meteorological conditions that have prevailed: more frequent northerlies and easterlies have meant a reduction in the number of erosion-inducing south-westerly storm surges. This has provided some relief as investigations by the Victorian Government’s Cape to Cape Resilience Project (C2CRP) team has continued. It also may have given a false sense that urgent action was no longer a high priority.
Storm surges over the winter have highlighted just how vulnerable the remaining dunes are to a return to more frequent south-westerly storm surges that occurred so frequently between 2012 and 2019. Our July beach monitoring survey revealed a 300mm drop in sand levels, with the foredunes that had started to rebuild over last summer having been cut into. With the possibility of more storm surges over the next few months, and a return to El Nino conditions this summer, SGCS reiterates our call for the Victorian Government to give high priority to the rapid conclusion of the C2CRP and a funding commitment to enable early implementation of its key findings.
Having participated throughout the C2CRP process, and examined the options under consideration, SGCS has concluded that increasing the resilience of the coastal reserve by large-scale renourishment, supported by active dune management, revegetation and wet sand fencing, provides the best means of sustaining the remaining dunes through to 2040, giving more time for long-term climate adaptation pathways to be progressed. The short-listed engineering options under consideration don’t appear to be appropriate for Inverloch, and could result in unintended consequences given the complex coastal process relationships that exist between the Surf Beach and Anderson Inlet. A rock wall would result in the lowering of sand levels and eventual loss of the Surf Beach, and groynes or a nearshore breakwater would completely change the highly valued, natural character of the Surf Beach.
With the draft Cape to Cape Resilience Plan anticipated to be put on public exhibition later this year, it is vital that all those who care for the future of our coastal reserve, and the Surf Beach more broadly, take the opportunity to highlight the urgent need for appropriate climate adaptation action.
Philip Heath is team leader of the Inverloch Coastal Resilience Project for the South Gippsland Conservation Society. Reports and video documentaries undertaken for the project are available at www.sgcs.org.au.