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Shire President Linda Balcombe said the public had asked if the platform could be retained and only the steps removed, and the shire decided to investigate this and potentially salvage the wood, given it was only in 2017 locals fundraised $240,000 for the lookout.
“People have their wedding photos up there, it’s an emotional location,” she said.
“We’re trying to not upset as many people as we can.”
It is only two months since the shire had to move a community-funded gazebo for the third time due to erosion.
WAtoday asked why locals were allowed to erect beachfront infrastructure in a town with long-term extreme erosion problems.
Balcombe, who was only elected last year, said coastal hazard modelling finalised in 2019 had not identified that area as so at risk in this timeframe, with the focus more on the Grace Darling Park area further south.
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Recent photography shows despite this lack of warning, the area has since lost 25 metres.
A local who asked to remain anonymous due to the depth of division in town said people were understandably emotional about the plaques and lookout, but these were emergency works.
“It’s a big cliff, there are kids digging holes around there and playing in the dunes in the school holidays at the bottom of a 10-metre sand cliff … if someone gets hurt they will be suing the council,” they said.
“Just don’t build on the beach. Emotion in the town wins over common sense every time. We just need to have a plan for retreat, and when the council got one, everyone went mental.
“There is a delusion that money can fix erosion.
“It’s time for the state to step in.”
A draft plan in 2023 strongly recommended Lancelin remove beachfront assets, mapping most buildings as at high flood risk within 50 years, and marking engineering solutions such as seawalls, development controls and raised buildings as unfeasible.
The conclusion was for the shire, state and community to jointly investigate “town-scale retreat”, with the shire to make appropriately zoned land available for relocations from 2050.
But a vocal sector of the community rejected the plan and Balcombe said it would not be revisited until peer review of new updated hazard modelling was complete.
Balcombe said even the 2019 hazard modelling came with planning restrictions for existing properties which were already resented by the public, but the new modelling showed the problem was not going away.
A community-erected pavilion in Lancelin was in May moved for the third time.
“Change is happening and we have to deal with it,” she said.
Dealing with it is already expensive for the shire.
As well as paying to relocate public assets, and covering half of the roughly $80,000 a year it costs to shore up the sand for its Grace Darling Park (with WA taxpayers fronting the rest) its ageing caravan park, traditionally a source of revenue, needs remediation work and putting out to lease.
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Anticipating a shortfall, the shire has recently flagged a differential rate rise of up to 10 per cent.
Balcombe wrote to WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti in June, and again on Thursday, asking for help with this newer erosion area in addition to the non-transferable sand funding for Grace Darling Park.
“We are under state planning policy to have this [coastal hazard mapping] and some of that is what we are using in our planning decisions, which puts pressure on us from the community,” she said.
“We have had conversations with the hotel as well … we are not asking for funding for it all.”
Almost 1000 Lancelin ratepayers have petitioned parliament saying “a retreat is not a viable solution” and asking for technical and financial assistance.
A state government spokesperson said coastal erosion in the town was recognised as a “critical issue”, and more than $20.6 million had been invested since 2020 to help coastal management authorities, including the Gingin shire.
“A further $33.6 million is committed until 2026, and the state government will continue to support projects that boost the state’s existing coastal planning and management strategies as well as data collection and community engagement, to further protect our coastal areas,” they said.
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