A STATE election promise by the Liberal Party to spend $10 million on a “a comprehensive erosion plan” for Port Phillip has been compared to “throwing envelopes of cash off Portsea pier”.
Futurefish Foundation director David Kramer said the erosion plan – announced in two media events on the Mornington Peninsula by Liberal candidates for the Mornington and Nepean electorates – showed “ignorance” of existing work and studies by experts.
“These studies have produced a range of options to restore Portsea beach and prevent the wave action that caused the sand movement in the first place,” Kramer said.
He had an appointment to see the Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday 13 September in a bid to secure an election promise to restore Portsea beach.
Kramer “holds out hope” that the restoration of Portsea beach can be paid for as the sandbags have been on the beach “way too long”.
“We need funding for configuration dredging in Port Phillip which will significantly reduce the wave action as well as sand relocation from west of Point King to restore Portsea beach,” he said.
Kramer fears that if the wave action does not change “Portsea pier will be the next thing that washes away, and that’s another multi-million-dollar fix if that occurs”.
An erosion plan will not fix the problem at Portsea beach,” Kramer said. “If [Liberal candidate for Nepean Sam] Groth has his way, what we will end up with in four years is a whole lot of talk and no real action.”
While separate studies have been completed to tackle beach erosion at Portsea and Mount Martha, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) is yet to release the findings of its coastal hazard assessment of Port Phillip.
Millions of dollars have already been spent replenishing sand and importing boulders at the two beaches, but Kramer predicts Portsea pier will be lost unless dredging is undertaken to change wave action.
The Liberals’ erosion plan was announced on the same day by Groth at Portsea and the party’s Mornington candidate Chris Crewther at Mount Martha accompanied by Brighton MP and opposition bay protection spokesperson James Newbury (“Politicians go to water in bid for votes” The News 30/8/22).
The party’s statement quoted Groth as saying the commitment (for a study) “will deliver a desperately needed solution” for peninsula beaches to be enjoyed by “locals and visitors”.
“If only Mr Groth had spoken to key stakeholders in regard to Portsea beach, he would have realised that there is no need for further studies as comprehensive studies have already been completed by expert companies Advisian and Water Technologies,” Kramer said.
He said studies had produced a range of options to restore Portsea beach and prevent the wave action that caused the sand movement in the first place (“Portsea beach bill $20.42m” The News 10/4/17).
“If Groth thinks a $10 million erosion plan will fix Portsea beach, he is kidding himself”.
Kramer said he had been a member of a working group led by Mornington Peninsula Shire CEO John Baker, which included representatives from Port of Melbourne and DELWP which benefitted from existing reports that showed “there is already a very comprehensive understanding of why the sand washed away at Portsea”.
“Mr Groth may as well throw envelopes of cash off the Portsea pier if he truly believes that an erosion plan is what will fix Portsea beach.”
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 6 September 2022
