Beach destruction to be resisted

BY DYLAN FERGUSON
& LESLIE RICHMOND

ADELAIDE — After months of diluted information, stalls and community consultations few and far between, the Coastal Protection Board (CPB) is set to go ahead with a planned experimental breakwater at Semaphore.

The CPB claims the breakwater is necessary to stop the increasing northward drift of sand from Adelaide's southern beaches due mainly to the death of the southern seagrass beds affected by development and storm-water and sewage discharge.

The breakwater is intended to trap sand that can then be mined to replenish the eroded, over-developed southern beaches.

However, local activists from the Port Adelaide Environment Protection Group (PAEPG) question the effectiveness of the proposal as a serious solution to a major environmental problem. PAEPG members are also angry that the project will seriously damage one of the last remaining healthy dune systems in Adelaide.

The first stages of the operation are set to move 100,000 cubic metres of sand in the next few weeks. The PAEPG estimates that this will result in the destruction of a $20,000 Landcare project and a unique animal and plant habitat that has slowly grown over the last 30 years.

Indeed, with its continued refusal to address a whole range of issues raised by local activists, the CPB is acting as a development protection board. This is not surprising, given the support by present and previous governments for continuous coastal development — especially of the luxury shorefront apartment type that relies upon the fiction of pristine, endlessly replenished beaches.

Although presented as a means of protecting the natural environment, the Semaphore breakwater is aimed more at protecting the economic viability of a few large property developments than at combating a serious problem of coastal degradation.

Through nearly 18 months of campaigning, the PAEPG has raised many issues still to be addressed by the CPB is including the safety of residents during the mining and construction operation, the effect of the breakwater on local sea currents, and the impact on the dunes.

The PAEPG will be holding an anti-breakwater and development rally at 11 am on August 30 at the Semaphore foreshore near the jetty. For more information, phone Stephen Darley on 8242 5121 or email <stoifan@arcom.com.au>.

From Green Left Weekly, August 27, 2003.

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From GLW issue 551