Coastal protection works vandalised

In an act of senseless vandalism over the weekend sand trapping fences recently put in place to protect Separation Point from coastal erosion have been destroyed.

City of Greater Geraldton CEO Ken Diehm said the destruction of fencing has left him disappointed and frustrated and shows disrespect for the time and money the City spends trying to protect beaches.

“I am extremely disappointed that some idiot has intentionally driven through the fences,” he said.

“The destruction of these fences is absolutely unacceptable and it’s frustrating to see ratepayers money wasted in this way.

“Even though the sand fencing was intentional set away from where vehicles travel along the beach the fact that someone purposely drove through 66 Jarrah posts holding 200m of coir meshing fencing shows a real lack of respect for the time and money the City invests to protect our beaches from erosion.”

Installation of the environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional metal star pickets and orange plastic fencing used to trap sand was completed on 8 April 2016. 

“Both the City and the community prefers the use of natural materials to provide a soft engineering solution to coastal erosion by trapping sand to act as a buffer to wave action, however if the community can’t help us keep these soft measures in place we may find ourselves having to use hard infrastructure that comes at a much higher cost,” said Mr Diehm.

“Nobody wants to see hard infrastructure on the beaches but at least it won’t be so easily destroyed.

The City of Greater Geraldton is one of the few Cities in WA where vehicle access to the coast is still possible.

“I find it very disheartening that someone has abused the privilege of vehicle access to the beach and wasted more than $5300 of ratepayers’ money in the process.

“Should the destruction of coastal protection works continue, the City may recommend to Council that vehicle access to the beach be reconsidered,” he said.

The City will endeavour to replace the fencing as soon as possible.