Erosion of South Australian beaches has left residents stuck between a rock and a hard place as sand continues to dissipate from the coastline in Adelaide's western suburbs. With a government review into coastal management now overdue with calls growing for more sustainable actions to be taken.
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00:00 Eroded beaches and access points closed.
00:05 That's been the reality for Adelaide's western suburbs for over 70 years and some residents
00:11 are furious.
00:12 We have some days we can't get down the ramp because there's no sand to go to.
00:16 To combat erosion, dunes at West Beach have been continually supplemented with truckloads
00:21 of sand, delivered from quarries and from the metropolitan semaphore beach, with 100,000
00:27 cubic metres delivered last year alone.
00:29 It was really getting my goat, the number of the huge trucks that were coming down,
00:33 they were just shoveling sand into the back of the trucks.
00:37 Last year the state government conducted a review into Adelaide's beach and sand management,
00:41 which was due to be handed down by the end of last year.
00:44 But more than a week into 2024, the community is still waiting and the state opposition
00:50 is demanding answers.
00:52 These beaches are washing away as we speak and the system that's in place, the Band Aid
00:58 solution is noisy, dangerous, polluting, unsafe trucks moving up and down the beach, carting
01:05 sand.
01:06 The state government have promised to release their findings of the review in the next few
01:10 weeks, but Minister Kyan Ma acknowledged sand carting might not be the long term solution.
01:16 There are very different views along different parts of our coastline about what the options
01:20 should be in terms of how we manage this on an ongoing basis and that's exactly why we've
01:24 done so much consultation.
01:26 While the review is pending, residents are still waiting for their beach to be saved.
01:31 It's now the beginning of 2024 and we don't have the luxury of time before we get these
01:36 results.
01:37 If it's not going to slow down, I think the government has to speed up.
01:40 It's now up to the government to draw a line in the sand.
01:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]