Stopping sand mining at Semaphore

By Emma Webb ADELAIDE — Over 100 Semaphore residents and environmental activists have been blockading bulldozers and trucks from sand mining Semaphore beach. Since 1974 the Coastal Protection Board (CPB) has regularly moved sand from the beach, dumping it further south in front of properties where the coast is eroding. Activists opposing the sand-mining argue that this is no solution to coastal erosion. Pete Hemmings, assistant secretary of Port Adelaide Residents Environment Protection Group (PAREPG), told Green Left Weekly, "Sand drifts northward, so beaches at Semaphore and further north have a natural build up of sand. You can't stop the natural processes of erosion in the southern areas by sand mining. You can build up the beach where it is eroding, however waves eventually bring the beach back to its original profile. "The CPB is locked into a policy of only dealing with areas of the coast where properties are built too close to the beach. These properties should never have been built in the first place and environmentalists campaigned against their construction in the 1970s. The cheapest option for the government is to mine sand from beaches where there is no erosion and dump it in front of properties where there is. A long-term solution [would] bring the coast line back to something resembling its natural state which would mean a long-term plan of buying back properties which are built too close to the shore in eroded areas." Every year the CPB promises that sand-mining will not by resumed the following year, and every year the promise is broken. Hemmings explained that: "The campaign started when the CPB proposed to mine 35,000 cubic metres from Taperoo beach north of Semaphore. That project was stopped by a coalition including the PAREPG and the Semaphore Residents Association after it was found that the beach was the last remaining nesting site on the metropolitan coast of the Red Capped Plover. If this hadn't occurred the CPB would have obliterated that bird population. Now there are moves to make this beach area a conservation zone." The current anti-mining campaign is the strongest to date. The activists' blockade has halted work, the CFMEU have placed a green ban on the site, and Transport Workers Union members are respecting the blockade. Both the United Trades and Labour Council and the Port Adelaide City Council have given the campaign their unanimous support. For more information phone 496 777.

From GLW issue 211