Grievance Debate

Yorke Peninsula Sand Drift

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:13): I rise today to speak on the numerous issues with sand drift, sand retention and sand replenishment that have arisen in recent years up and down Yorke Peninsula. Since I started representing the community of Narungga less than 12 months ago, and in the months preceding that as a candidate, Complaints have been made to me about the sand situation at North Beach near Wallaroo, Black Point, Fisherman Bay, Balgowan, Point Turton and The Pines. Indeed, I was told quite a humorous story about The Pines in which one shack owner was quite appreciative of the sand drift issues that have arisen because the accumulation is happening right in front of his shack, and never has the beach looked so plentiful and full of sand. That is just off the top of my head.

In addition to that, there are other communities that desperately need a boat ramp improvement. I am loath to endorse any solution while the record on coastal protection on the peninsula is so lacklustre. Beautiful Marion Bay, for example, has a flawed boat ramp which makes it almost impossible to launch a boat unless you are a local with experience in the most difficult of conditions. However, based on the examples that we have on the peninsula, a solution that includes a rock groyne places at risk the pristine beaches around Marion Bay, which attract so many tourists each year.

North Beach is a particularly bad example of sand drift issues, where a rock groyne installed to protect the entry to the marina is blamed for catching a great deal of sand. It inundates the shacks closest to the boat ramp marina entry with sand at their front doorstep. Shacks down that end literally, without a word of exaggeration, have sand that accumulates to a height above the roof level out the front of the shacks. This makes the shacks unusable. The very reason people buy on the beachfront is so that they can walk out the front door, onto the beach and into the water.

In Fisherman Bay and Black Point, new boat ramps have impeded the natural drift of sand along the beach. On one side there is plentiful sand, and on the other there is a rough, rocky base that one finds if one digs deep enough beneath the surface sand. Residents of these two communities visit primarily because of the pristine beaches. The sand drift issues we have on the peninsula put at risk those residents and visitors who patronise those towns every year.

In Point Turton and Balgowan, the boat ramps are impossible to use at low tide because the ramp silts up between the rock groynes that guard the ramp from the dangerous wave conditions that can impede the launching of a boat. Point Turton sea rescue have reached out to me and said that they fear that lives will be at risk when they cannot get their rescue vessel out to save victims.

Indeed, they relate a story about returning to the ramp towing a stricken vessel and becoming beached at the boat ramp. Members of the sea rescue squadron literally had to get out and push the sea rescue boat and the stricken vessel across the silted-up entrance to the boat ramp. It took some 20 minutes to get both boats to safety. One worries that, if an emergency call goes out and the squadron is required to push the boat out of the boat ramp, that 20 minutes might be the difference between life and death for those people trapped at sea in the most harrowing of circumstances.

Similarly, professional fishermen and charter fishermen in Point Turton are having issues and having their business put at risk by the boat ramp silting up. The YP Council is currently attempting to dredge the entry to the boat ramp. It is a process that needs to be entered into regularly at quite an expense to the council. I am sure that this process could be streamlined and made cheaper. Balgowan residents have approached me with a cheap and effective solution. I look forward to investigating that further to try to alleviate issues that they face at their boat ramp.

There are more problems up and down the peninsula, but this is just a quick overview of some of the issues that boat ramps face on the peninsula and beaches. YP is an extremely popular fishing destination. Based on my understanding, Port Hughes boasts the busiest boat ramp outside metropolitan Adelaide and is popular with many beachgoers.

I look forward to welcoming the Minister for Environment and Water down to the peninsula soon—indeed, he has given the undertaking to visit in the short term—and working toward a solution for these problems and toward a better guardian of coastline so that future boat ramp improvements do not impose the same problems on communities that the current situation does.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the communities at the aforementioned towns who have reached out to me and relayed their concerns. It has been a pleasure to visit all of those communities and view the problems faced by them and discuss how potential solutions might be reached. Thank you to those communities. I look forward to welcoming the minister to the peninsula in due course.