BYRON SHIRE residents and visitors still need to stay away from the dunes at Clarkes Beach, Byron Bay.
Director of infrastructure services, Phil Holloway, said the area has seen significant coastal erosion in the past week and could potentially collapse.
“People sunbaking are urged to not sit close to the erosion escarpment and not allow children to play or dig under the dunes.
“Clarkes Beach is presently starved of sand due to limited sand bypassing off Cape Byron and insignificant southerly swells over the past few years. Plus, we’ve had higher than normal high tides (king tides).”
Some of the access tracks from the coastal reserve to the beach have also undergone severe erosion, collapsed and have been closed.
Council will be undertaking works on the beach accesses in the coming days and asks for beach goers to use alternative access and to please not take down the signage or tape.
Remember:
- Be aware of the risk that unstable dunes present
- Avoid lying/sunbathing directly under the escarpment
- Do not allow children to play directly under or around the dune escarpment
- Stay off the dunes to allow the dune vegetation to re-establish
- Use the formal access paths to access the beach
Simple solution is to use an excavator to pull down the top of the dunes. But I guess someone would whinge about the “native vegetation being destroyed” & “council destroying the dunes”.
Higher than normal tides – get used to it. CSIRO figures show that the sea level has risen over 200mm since Byron was first surveyed and land blocks sold in the mid 880’s. http://www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/sl_hist_few_hundred.html
Although they won’t openly state it due to politics, the Australian Baseline Sea Level Monitoring Project data is showing that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanography/projects/abslmp/abslmp.shtml