Washed away - more houses on the brink at beach town
Monday, 27 June 2022
Three more Port Waikato houses are uninhabitable after metres of beach were claimed by the sea in the latest storm.
The popular holiday spot on the North Island’s West Coast has long been affected by a natural phenomenon where sand movements build up, then erode the shore.
Sunset Beach surf life-saving club president Malcolm Beattie said another three metres of sand was lost in the storm earlier this month.
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* Street of Port Waikato houses could be washed away in decades, erosion map predicts
**
“That is a hell of a lot of land gone that we’ll never get back,” he said.
Sloping banks of sand are now ragged-edged cliffs, and three more houses on Ocean View Rd had been deemed uninhabitable as a result.
Tonnes of rocks and rubble had also been washed up, changing the beach’s landscape.
The Waikato District Council’s senior building inspector Rob Koppers said it was working with the three property owners whose houses should no longer be lived in due to erosion.
None of those properties with a “high risk profile” were occupied permanently, he said.
“We are actively working with all affected property owners to find a suitable outcome and approach that best suits both the property owners and keeps the erosion risks that currently exist forefront to mind.”
In 2019, two beach-front houses and the community’s surf club was demolished after they teetered too close to the sea.
Beattie has been involved with the Sunset Beach surf life-saving club for 48 years and has seen the beach lose about 40 metres in that time.
He said the tow of the ocean came in and took from the bottom of the sand dunes, then the top collapsed.
“It’s an ongoing thing, but the big tides last week really just wrecked the beach.”
“It’s hard to watch what we love about this place disappear. The continual hammering of the tides, it’s just out of our control.”
Beattie said a group of locals had formed an erosion committee and were working with authorities to trying to slow down the erosion.
“We are not going to see this community washed out, and there are a bunch of locals interested in doing that.
“There is a plan, but no one wants to take it on and pay the money, or do the job.”
He said the group wanted to take sand from down the beach and pack it in where the erosion was the worst.
Consent was needed to carry out the work – which would cost thousands, Beattie said. Then the work itself had to be funded.
He said they were never going to solve the problem because nothing could stop mother nature.
“But, if we can slow things down and be prepared for a big shift.”
Jo Poland lives on Ocean View Rd, just a few houses down from those recently labelled uninhabitable.
“It’s almost inevitable that I will have to pay to demolish my home. The rug has been pulled from under our feet.”
When she purchased her Port Waikato home in 1994, she was only warned of erosion by wind.
”We didn’t make the decision. It wasn’t predicted by anyone.”
The house was the 70-year-old’s ticket to building a family holiday home and a relaxed retirement.
Now, she will likely have to demolish her house – and at her own cost.
But, this was something she could never afford.
People affected by climate change-induced erosion were not eligible for compensation or funding, she said.
“We are really frustrated.”
Her plan was to move into a garage-turned office on the property, where she co-ran the Rural Youth and Adult Literacy Trust.
“Those of us up the street aren’t so worried, but every house that goes increases the risk that all the houses will go, and the Port will go.”
She said some people were optimistic, but it would only take one big king tide to claim many of their houses.
“We are very vulnerable. It’s more a case of hope than optimism. I hope it stops.”
A Waikato Regional Council spokesperson said it was not responsible for doing any physical works with respect to erosion.
Instead, it had been freely providing expertise to help the community work towards an appropriate remedial solution via the Sunset Beach Erosion Response Plan.
“The team and some of our other coastal scientists have been working collaboratively with Waikato District Council and the Port Waikato community on the Sunset Beach Erosion Response Plan to address the erosion hazard.”