Seawater has swept over dunes and pushed into residents’ homes in Surfside, on the NSW South Coast. Photo: Dr Michael Holland MP – Member for Bega Facebook.
Flooding has brought on renewed calls for action on coastal erosion affecting a South Coast beach.
The combination of an east coast low and high tide recently resulted in several houses being inundated along Myamba Parade in Surfside, a northern suburb of Batemans Bay.
A long-time Surfside resident, who asked not to be named, said the seawater had washed over sand dunes after years of erosion to a nearby beach.
“The backyards here are absolutely covered in debris – logs and seaweed [were washed in],” she told Region.
“There’s no way that could be just chucked away by us; we haven’t got the facilities. It’s big logs … [and] lots of vegetation that has to be disposed of.”
She said the dunes had eroded over several years, leaving residents’ homes exposed.
“It’s right up to our back doors now, and for a few of the houses here, it’s [the sea] getting uncomfortably close,” she said.
“They’ve only got a few metres of beach reserve left before it’s actually in their backyard.”
Local commander for SES Eurobodalla Peter Collins said the high tide peaked at about 1 am on Tuesday (1 April).
“The waves were coming up over the dune and just washing right through the back doors of the houses,” Mr Collins said.
“A lot of debris – a lot of wood sticks [and other items] were coming up and landing right there in the gardens, as well.”
Two units – Batemans Bay and Moruya – were called to Myamba Parade on Wednesday (2 April), and spent the afternoon sandbagging homes to “give them the extra bit of protection”.
There were no evacuations or rescues, Mr Collins said.
Mr Collins said SES volunteers were hard at work sandbagging homes to keep them safe from the swell. Photo: Dr Michael Holland MP – Member for Bega Facebook.
Mr Collins said further flooding wasn’t expected for Surfside, though people were encouraged to watch forecasts.
“The high tides have now peaked, so they’re getting lesser and lesser every night now,” he said.
“Also, the low-pressure system that caused a lot of this is moving over New Zealand, so it’s not having the same effect.”
The Surfside resident said areas to the northern end of the beach were more affected by erosion, with a “rocky promontory” helping to protect the southern end.
“[Some houses have] about 30 paces, other properties have got 10 paces to their back boundary and then another five paces to the edge of the dune, which is now a cliff,” she said.
“We used to have a nice gradual beach that the waves would run up, but that’s been eroded … that’s what’s taking the dune away.”
The resident said her community had been raising their concerns with Eurobodalla Shire Council and the NSW Government for years and were calling for more help after the inundation.
“People are waiting for the houses to fall in. We need some sort of hard mitigation to stop this,” she said.
“They’ve waited until it’s nearly crucial. We’ve lost all the sand – they’ll never replace all that sand … now we’ve got to do something to stop the houses falling in,” she said.
