‘The beach is disappearing’: Coastal erosion threatens bathing boxes on the Mornington Peninsula

1 week ago 3

Even at low tide, the renowned bathing boxes at Mount Martha North are perched precariously over a vanishing beach.

In the past, the charming structures looked out over a sandy expanse when the water receded. Today, some of the boxes appear close to collapse, having been battered by storms and tides.

Beach boxes under threat by coastal erosion in Mount Martha North.

While Mount Martha North is among the most extreme examples, owners say beach boxes and boat sheds are under threat from coastal erosion and more violent storms across the Mornington Peninsula.

Mark Davis, whose family has owned a boat shed in Blairgowrie since the 1950s, said this past winter was the worst he could remember.

“We’ve had four or five prevailing storms. We’ve had king tides,” he said. “And when the wind blows northwesterly, which is the classic winter storm, it sweeps our bay.”

Although the shacks are privately owned, Davis said damage to the structures should worry everyone. If the boxes succumb to coastal erosion, he said, public infrastructure such as roads in some areas might be next.

Mark Davis at the beach boxes in Blairgowrie.

“This is where we are a canary in the coalmine,” Davis said. “Our infrastructure is under threat.”

Davis said human interventions in the environment, including the dredging of Port Phillip Bay that began more than 15 years ago, had resulted in degraded beaches on the Mornington Peninsula. He called for protective measures including groynes – large structures extending into the water – to preserve beaches.

Mornington Peninsula Shire figures show there are about 2000 boat sheds and bathing boxes in Victoria, and the council is the authority for more than 1300 of them.

Despite the threats of coastal erosion and sea level rises, beach boxes remain highly prized, and many remain in the same families for generations. Earlier this year, a beach box sold at Mount Martha for $1 million.

Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor Anthony Marsh said wild weather and big tides had stripped wood from some of the bathing boxes at Mount Martha North.

“Obviously, a lot of wave action puts a fair bit of pressure on these boxes,” he said. “And the problem is once the bits [of wood] fall off, they become effectively battering rams. That’s been a long-standing problem.”

While Brighton’s bathing boxes are heritage listed, those on the Mornington Peninsula do not have that protection. Marsh said he would support heritage listing for the peninsula’s bathing boxes and boat sheds provided there were no “unforeseen circumstances” that would place undue conditions on them.

He said the council needed permission from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action before it could implement any substantial protective measures, and said groynes should be considered for imperilled locations, including Mount Martha North.

“It’s not just about beach boxes,” he said. “The actual beach is disappearing, so it’s about protecting the amenity for everyone.”

For decades, beach boxes on the Mornington Peninsula, including in Mount Martha North, have borne the brunt of king tides and wild weather.

Mornington Peninsula Beach Box Association president Peter Clarke said the beach had now disappeared in front of the boxes at Mount Martha North and some other areas where there used to be plenty of sand.

He said the council and state government were responsible for protecting beach boxes, but the coastal erosion problems did not attract sufficient funding from the state.

Attempts to replenish sand on the beach at Mount Martha North have largely failed after it washed away. Clarke also called for groynes to be built at Mount Martha North to help rehabilitate the beach. He said the problem had accelerated over the past decade, and he remembered a time when sand stretched up to 30 metres in front of the beach boxes at low tide.

“There are photos of it from 20 years ago, and it’s a beautiful pristine beach,” Clarke said.

Former Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Simon Brooks said the beach was restoring itself outside his mother’s beach box in Dromana. He attributed the rehabilitation to the end of mechanical cleaning of the sand at the beach.

“Both debris that has washed up plus vegetation has stabilised that section of foreshore,” he said. “It’s the first time in many years the beach has been in that condition. It is interesting to observe how the vegetation is re-establishing itself.”

A spokesman for the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action said it was working with land managers and the Mornington Peninsula Shire to monitor the impacts of coastal erosion on bathing boxes in some locations.

“We’re also leading the development of coastal hazard risk management and adaptation strategies to understand how the coastline will change over time and the best way to support land managers through this,” he said.

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