Coastal erosion in WA causing beloved jetty to disappear under sand

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A well-loved jetty on the mid-west coast of WA is disappearing under a pile of sand. While in some regions coastal erosion is costing taxpayers millions, at Port Gregory, the beach isn't disappearing, it's growing. Locals in the small community are appealing for help to save their jetty.

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00:00Swallowed by sand, it's hard to believe fishing boats, yachts and dinghies ever tied up alongside

00:09this Port Gregory jetty. Today it's little more than a boardwalk onto the beach.

00:14The longer it goes, the more costly it's going to become. So it should have been looked at

00:20possibly 10 years ago rather than now.

00:24Greg Horseman is one of the local fishers forced to use a dinghy to ferry lobster and

00:29bait to and from his boat and the beach. And that comes at a cost, both in lost product

00:35and time. Built in the 1980s, the jetty is owned by the WA government and managed by the Department

00:43of Transport.

00:44It's been 14 years since crayfishers have been able to use the jetty. They've repeatedly

00:51raised the issue with government but are yet to hear or see a solution. They were promised

00:58to visit from the Transport Minister four years ago.

01:01Not to my knowledge she has been in.

01:04Locals and fishers say the community is missing out on other opportunities too. On the outskirts

01:10of Port Gregory, hundreds of thousands of tourists visit a pink lake every year, but often only

01:17stop in town to go to the toilet.

01:19It's embarrassing to have a jetty that people can't walk out and actually see water. Or

01:25walk over water, you know.

01:27Watching the beautiful big manta rays that we used to have swim underneath the jetty, you

01:31know at the moment we can't do any of that. It's just, it's so sad.

01:37In a statement, the Department of Transport says it has no plans to upgrade the jetty.

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