Obelisk iconic to seaside town at risk of collapsing into the ocean

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The quiet town of Robe in South Australia is popular with tourists keen to get away from it all. Years ago, it was a busy port and gateway for seafarers, guided by the town's distinctive red and white obelisk. Now, the famous landmark is at risk of collapsing into the ocean.

Transcript

00:00The obelisk behind me was built in 1855 and it was used to help guide people into Gutchin

00:07Bay, which is just in front of me, which is looking nice and calm, but the ocean further

00:12out behind is quite rough and gets quite high winds.

00:15The obelisk also, I learnt last night, used to have rocket-powered rescue gear to help

00:22ships that may have been in trouble off the coast here, but it is a landmark of the town.

00:29Last month, the local rope council, when planning its future, decided to not put forward any

00:35money to try and preserve or save the rope obelisk.

00:40You can't really see it from behind me here, but it is sitting fairly precariously on the

00:45edge of the coast and sand erosion and erosion of the cliffs around it has experts thinking

00:52it could break off and fall into the ocean sometime as soon as 20 years, but maybe in

00:57the next 100 years.

00:59The local council decided not to fund any works to either save it or perhaps look at

01:05honouring it in some way.

01:07That prompted a fairly swift community backlash from locals and there was a town meeting last

01:14night.

01:15Here is what the rope mayor, Lisa Ruffell, had to say about what she's heard from locals

01:21about how much they love the town's obelisk.

01:24It's the love of the community.

01:26We've got the icons on the rope primary school, they use it as the obelisk as their logo.

01:33Rope's roosters use it as a logo.

01:35International people recognise it, they come to see the obelisk, visitors, community, they

01:40just love it.

01:41But then there's people that don't love it.

01:44So like I said last night, there was quite a big public meeting, about 120 people, which

01:48in a small town is a fairly strong turnout and it was fairly unanimous that the people

01:53at the meeting wanted something done to save it.

01:57Whether that is actually physically moving the obelisk to a safer space here on the coast

02:03that's not at danger from erosion, whether that is building a new one.

02:07But a quote was given at the meeting, it's only one quote from a builder, that it could

02:12cost $1.5 million to build a new obelisk on a safer part of the coast.

02:20As I said, the sentiment was very much that something needs to be done to make sure that

02:24the obelisk is still around.

02:27Doug Fotheringham is someone who's been around Rope most of his life and he also worked doing

02:33studies on the coast here and looking at the obelisk and the dangers around when it might

02:38break off.

02:40And he said that, here's what he had to say about, I guess, the precarious position of

02:47the obelisk.

02:49Amazingly, it's still standing.

02:51I think there's been people predicting it wouldn't be there in 10 years' time or so,

02:56but it's still standing.

02:57But really, it'd be very surprising if it still survives another 30 or 40 years.

03:05Might be gone tomorrow, might still be here in 30 years' time.

03:10So as you can hear there, it is a matter of time until the obelisk, something does happen

03:15to the obelisk and it does fall into the ocean.

03:18As time is taken to make a decision, the big winds, surf and rain that hits this part of

03:23the coast, which makes it so stunning and rugged and nice to look at, but it is putting

03:29the Rope obelisk in danger.

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