Dunedin: Erosion issues at St Clair and Ocean Beach

Received from Paul Pope
Fri, 25 Mar 2016 at 3:01 p.m.

█ Message: I filmed this short video the other day and spliced in some information on how the erosion at St Clair actually happens. I don’t often use video, but it looks very compelling. I put it into the Beginners Guide to Coastal Conservation on Facebook yesterday and it’s had more than 7000 views, so people are interested in what’s going on.

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[view full screen]
Paul Pope Published on Mar 24, 2016
The Physics of Erosion
The erosion issues at St Clair Beach and the whole of Ocean Beach in Dunedin have become more and more serious in recent years. Understanding the reasons behind what people see at St Clair is very important. The community need to be able to make informed decisions about these damaging processes.

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 11.9.15 RAPID dune erosion continues —Council doesn’t give a toss
● 19.8.15 Paul Pope’s strategic overview of coastal conservation #Dunedin
● 11.8.15 DCC’s unmanaged retreat for South Dunedin
● 22.7.15 DCC Long Term Plan 2015/16 – 2024/25
10.4.15 DCC: Natural Hazards
28.3.15 DCC Draft Long Term Plan 2015/16 to 2024/25 —Consultation Open
23.11.13 DCC: St Clair esplanade and seawall [public forum] 27 November
18.10.13 DCC: Final vote tally + St Clair boat ramp
18.8.13 South Dunedin and other low lying areas
26.5.13 [bad news] St Clair seawall #FAIL
10.9.12 John Wilson Ocean Drive … reminder to all of DCC incompetence
30.7.12 ORC on hazard risks and land use controls
28.11.11 St Clair seawall and beach access

█ For more, enter the term *coastal* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

St Clair swimming and surf guides #WaterSafety

### ODT Online Sat, 16 Jan 2016
Graphic warning at St Clair
By John Lewis
Warning signs are being put up by the Dunedin City Council at St Clair Beach this morning, following another close call in the surf this week. A video has been posted online showing a group of people running towards the St Clair Surf Club ramp, to avoid being swept away by a large rogue wave, including a man who had to pick up his children and run.
Read more

Otago Daily Times Published on Jan 15, 2016
Graphic warning at St Clair

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People should swim in patrolled areas between the flags. “Go when the waves are breaking, and don’t swim in flat water because that means currents and rips are taking water back out to the sea.”

### ODT Online Sat, 16 Jan 2016
Know your limits, surf life-savers say
By Damian George
Beachgoers in Dunedin are being urged to know their limits before taking to the water after surf life-savers rescued nine people in less than a month. Surf Life Saving New Zealand Otago-Southland club support officer Sam Clutterbuck said most rescues had been in non-patrolled areas, and some people were clearly not aware of what was safe.
Read more

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### dunedintv.co.nz Wed, 13 Jan 2016
Swimmers need to follow the rules on patrolled beaches
Surf life-savers continue to get the message out to swimmers to stay between the flags and make sensible decisions when taking to the water. There’s been some concerning incidents away from patrolled beaches. And as the weather heats up life guards are expecting to have to put their training into action.
Ch39 + Video

DCC Webmap – Dunedin beaches JanFeb 2013

Related Post and Comments:
12.1.16 Stone the freaking crows #SurfsUp #SeawallNightmares #Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Stone the freaking crows #SurfsUp #SeawallNightmares #Dunedin

Otago Daily Times Published on Jan 10, 2016
Surfer rescued at St Clair
Scott James took this video of a surfer being rescued after getting into trouble at St Clair beach this afternoon.

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“It would have only taken one wave and he could have been dead, so he was really lucky.”

### ODT Online Mon, 11 Jan 2016
Rescuing surfer hailed ‘heroic’
By Vaughan Elder
A surfer who carried out a dramatic rescue at St Clair Beach yesterday afternoon says someone will be killed unless the Dunedin City Council acts to make beach access safer. […] The man was warned before entering the water it was too dangerous. Mr James filmed the rescue so he could show the council and others just how bad it had got at the beach.
Read more

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### ODT Online Tue, 12 Jan 2016
Surfers ordered away from rocks
By Craig Borley
The waves were big and so were the boulders, forcing lifeguards to order surfers away from the St Clair Beach access steps during day one of the National Surfing Championships yesterday. […] Dunedin City Council parks, recreation and aquatics group manager Richard Saunders said council staff were working with the life saving club and the South Coast Boardriders Association to resolve the issues.
Read more

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“You can’t defeat mother nature so we have just got to try to provide a safe place for the public to swim….” –Cam Burrow, St Clair Surf Life Saving Club

### ODT Online Tue, 29 Dec 2015
St Clair unsafe, guards forced down beach
By Chris Morris
St Clair surf life savers are operating from a temporary pop-up tent as sand – and swimmers – are forced further down the beach. […] The western end of St Clair Beach had become “a no-swim zone, really”, as erosion stripping the beach of sand left behind only large rocks protecting the Esplanade’s sea wall, [Cam Burrow] said.
Read more

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### ODT Online Thu, 29 Oct 2015
Injury fears over Esplanade rocks
Surf lifesavers fear more people will be injured on rocks piled at the base of the St Clair Beach sea wall. Two people have been rescued from the rocks in the space of nine days. Lifesavers sprang into action on Monday when a young surfer got stuck trying to climb the rocks near the shark bell.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

RAPID dune erosion continues —Council doesn’t give a toss

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Alex Gilks replies to article St Clair dunes ‘in no danger’ (ODT 3.9.15)

Published at ODT Online
Wed, 9 Sep 2015

Your say: Urgent action is needed
By Alex Gilks
Wayne Stephenson’s comments here, assuming they were reported accurately, seem quite a way off the mark. I’m no expert, but grew up near the dunes, and walk on the beach often.
I visited this morning, and the big sea earlier this week has carved off more of the top of the dune. The two big pines are about 5m and 10m from the edge of the erosion. Bill Brown is right: urgent action is needed. Big-scale protection at the bottom.
Putting aside the throwaway comment about the asteroid, here are the troubling things about this article:

• ‘no risk to property this year’ – this super short-term thinking should be criticized

• ‘if the dune’s foot was staying in place’ – the dune’s foot is absolutely not staying in place! The immediate reason for the dramatic erosion is that the toe of the dune has been completely hammered since the sand sausages were ruined. How can he not see that? Is he not actually visiting the site?

• the idea that the enemy is ‘winter’s storms’, and the implication that it will be ok again until next winter. Where does this come from? The south coast can get powerful southerlies at any time of year. Is there some data that you can use to show the frequency and time of year of southerly/easterly storms and high tides?

• sand sausages and sand replenishment as interim solutions, before ‘more permanent features in coming years’. Shouldn’t this receive more criticism? The previous sands sausages and sand replenishment worked for only what, a handful of years? Wouldn’t you just urgently undertake some more long-term solution?

For this to get real I think decision-makers need to walk along the ridge track from the Kettle Park area, see the shifting edge and the remaining area at the apex of the dune.
I’d take a botanist along too, to get a good gauge on the age of the trees that have been uprooted. The bigger ones must be 50-80 years old, yet you hear some people saying things like ‘this happened in the 70s/90s/a few years back’.
No. We need to get past this complacent idea that this is a seasonal thing, that it’ll replenish itself soon and will start working normally again in the near future.
ODT Link

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Received from Hype O’Thermia
Tue, 8 Sep 2015 at 10:36 a.m.

The sea does not adapt to humans

Increased storms and extreme weather – get off yer bike! Just for fun I googled “British houses that fell into the sea”, not a helluva rigorous search……..

One dark night in 1664, while local people were attending a wake, the whole village of Runswick slipped into the sea…
Thankfully, all the villagers escaped but by morning there was only one house left standing… the house of the dead man!
http://www.visitengland.com/experience/discover-village-fell-sea

As late as 1817 when George Young, the Whitby historian, wrote of the incident, articles including a silver spoon and coins which had been carried from the rubble by the tide were still being washed back.
http://www.chrisscottwilson.co.uk/runswick-bay/4551457861

It wasn’t always so peaceful – one night in 1664 the entire village slid into the sea! Returning from a wake, one of the villagers noticed the steps of his house slipping away beneath his feet. He gave the alarm and most of the village fled to safety. By morning only one house remained standing- the house of the deceased man. The village was rebuilt further around the shore but land slippage continued to be a problem. In 1970 a new sea wall was finally built, thankfully securing the village’s future.
http://www.simonseeks.com/travel-guides/hands-all-those-whove-heard-runswick-bay__167571

In medieval times, when Dunwich was first accorded representation in Parliament, it was a flourishing port and market town about thirty miles from Ipswich. However, by 1670 the sea had encroached upon the town, destroying the port and swallowing up all but a few houses so that nothing was left but a tiny village. The borough had once consisted of eight parishes, but all that was left was part of the parish of All Saints, Dunwich – which by 1831 had a population of 232, and only 44 houses (“and half a church”, as Oldfield recorded in 1816).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwich_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire
The raging storms have taken their toll, claiming many buildings as the limestone cliffs erode. In 1780, 22 cottages fell into the sea. Today a rock seawall helps protect the picturesque village.
http://www.britainexpress.com/villages/robinhood.htm

[ends]

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 19.8.15 Paul Pope’s strategic overview of coastal conservation #Dunedin
● 11.8.15 DCC’s unmanaged retreat for South Dunedin
● 22.7.15 DCC Long Term Plan 2015/16 – 2024/25
10.4.15 DCC: Natural Hazards
28.3.15 DCC Draft Long Term Plan 2015/16 to 2024/25 —Consultation Open
23.11.13 DCC: St Clair esplanade and seawall [public forum] 27 November
18.10.13 DCC: Final vote tally + St Clair boat ramp
18.8.13 South Dunedin and other low lying areas
26.5.13 [bad news] St Clair seawall #FAIL
10.9.12 John Wilson Ocean Drive … reminder to all of DCC incompetence
30.7.12 ORC on hazard risks and land use controls
28.11.11 St Clair seawall and beach access

█ For more, enter the term *coastal* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: dunedinisforlovers.blogspot.co.nz – Majestic Mansions (April 2010); world50th.files.wordpress.com – dunes (February 2015)

Paul Pope’s strategic overview of coastal conservation #Dunedin

Received from Paul Pope
Wed, 19 Aug 2015 at 10:52 a.m.

█ Message: I see sand dunes and erosion are a hot topic on the What if? website. I thought I would send you a submission I made to the City Council on Ocean Beach Domain in 2008/2009 which gives a detailed strategic overview of coastal issues and provides a basis for a variety of solutions to a number of problems including land occupation. Also I have created a Facebook page under my personal account called: The beginners guide to coastal conservation.
I created it to provide people with information on coastal issues.

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[screenshot]

█ Download: Paul Pope: Ocean Beach Domain Submission (PDF, 1 MB)

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Related Post and Comments:
● 11.8.15 DCC’s unmanaged retreat for South Dunedin
● 22.7.15 DCC Long Term Plan 2015/16 – 2024/25
18.7.15 DCC Cycleways: SEEING RED, apology NOT accepted
14.7.15 DCC strategies needed like a hole in the head
12.6.15 Fairfax: DCC has no insurance cover for flood-damaged roads
5.6.15 WEATHER is not climate change; this is not the 100-year flood
4.6.15 Exchange makeover —or pumps and pipe renewals, um
3.6.15 Civil Defence response to Dunedin FLOODING
10.4.15 DCC: Natural Hazards
28.3.15 DCC Draft Long Term Plan 2015/16 to 2024/25 —Consultation Open
14.10.14 ORC: New strategic plan fosters Otago prosperity
12.9.14 ORC: City bus services, submissions
10.12.13 ORC restructures directorates
23.11.13 DCC: St Clair esplanade and seawall [public forum] 27 November
18.10.13 DCC: Final vote tally + St Clair boat ramp
18.8.13 South Dunedin and other low lying areas
26.5.13 [bad news] St Clair seawall #FAIL
26.2.13 DCC binge spending alert: Proposed South Dunedin cycle network
10.9.12 John Wilson Ocean Drive … reminder to all of DCC incompetence
30.7.12 ORC on hazard risks and land use controls
7.6.12 Dunedin stormwater: more differences between ORC and DCC
28.11.11 St Clair seawall and beach access
25.11.11 South Dunedin and other flood zones
7.12.09 Coastal protection zones
14.11.09 From the log books of a twenty-year distress #DCC
24.8.09 1. STS response – appeal 2. Coastal protection – comments

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC’s unmanaged retreat for South Dunedin #naturalhazards

█ SOME BUILDINGS NOW JUST 12M FROM DUNE’S FACE

Bill Brown, who initially raised his concerns in the Otago Daily Times last month, feared no urgency had been shown by council staff since then.

Spring’s king tides were still to come and could bring dramatic further erosion, he said in his written submission.

### ODT Online Tue, 11 Aug 2015
Disappearing dunes ‘an immediate problem’
By Craig Borley
Dunes along Dunedin’s Ocean Beach have receded nearly 9m in the past four weeks and will continue to disappear unless immediate action is taken, a St Clair resident told the Dunedin City Council yesterday …. [Bill Brown] took those concerns to the council’s community and environment committee, where he presented several aerial photographs showing the extent of recent erosion.
Read more

● ODT: ORC has role to play
Responsibility for erosion repairs at Dunedin’s Ocean Beach may not lie solely with the Dunedin City Council, its community and environment committee heard yesterday

● ODT: Erosion problem for rugby club
The Dunedin Rugby Football Club has made no decision on where its future lies but its training lights have been out of use because of costal erosion and sand is encroaching on to its main ground.

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### ODT Online Fri, 10 Jul 2015
Beach erosion: ‘For God’s sake, it’s time to take action’
By Craig Borley
Permanently fix the erosion of St Clair’s sand dunes or give up on most of South Dunedin – there are no other options, a St Clair resident believes. Heavy seas in the past month have washed out several metres of sand dunes.
Read more

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St Clair Beach / Esplanade
(top) wikimedia.org – historical view | uniquelynz.com – 2014 view

### ODT Online
Sea wall plan ‘not about savings’
By Chris Morris on Mon, 24 Nov 2014
A squeeze on Dunedin City Council finances is not behind a push to defer multimillion-dollar options to protect the St Clair sea wall, Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull insists. A council staff report recommends any plans for major capital works – such as a groyne to protect the sea wall and properties behind it – be put on hold.
Read more

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Managed retreat….

### ODT Online Thu, 23 Feb 2012
Engineer says let erosion take South Dunedin
By Chris Morris
Allowing coastal erosion to reclaim Kettle Park should be the start of a wider retreat from South Dunedin, a Dunedin City Council hearings committee has heard. The call came from Sustainable Dunedin City co-chairman Phillip Cole – a former civil engineer of 31 years’ experience – as the committee considered a second day of submissions on its draft management plan for Ocean Beach.
Read more

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DCC Webmap – South Dunedin Jan/Feb 2013 [click to enlarge]

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DCC Natural Hazard Maps
Note: These maps are DRAFT only. The boundaries of hazard areas and hazard risk classification may be subject to change based on consultation feedback and further assessment ahead of notification. We strongly encourage feedback on any adjustments that may be required.
You also can use the interactive District plan map in the related information section, to see the current District Plan zoning, and the potential 2GP zoning, including the proposed hazard overlay zones, for your property

██ http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/whats-on/2gp/natural-hazards-phase/natural-hazard-maps

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The maps identified “extreme risk” land in red, which some Dunedin homeowners had “instantly associated with red-zoning in Christchurch”. –Sally Dicey, DCC policy planner

### ODT Online Thu, 25 Sep 2014
Concerns raised over natural hazards plan
By Chris Morris
Homeowners worried about being left in a Christchurch-style red zone – at least on paper – are calling for changes to the Dunedin City Council’s natural hazards plan. Their concerns come as council staff wade through nearly 200 submissions received since the council’s plan to tighten its grip on some city properties, to better protect against natural hazards, was announced in June.
Read more

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### ODT Online Mon, 12 Jan 2009
Council weighs costly Esplanade options
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council is weighing several “quite expensive” options aimed at preventing improvements to the Esplanade, at St Clair, crumbling in the next big storm. Parts of the Esplanade upgrade, which has so far cost more than $6 million, have had repeated structural problems since being largely completed in 2004.
Read more

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### ODT Online Fri, 19 Sep 2014
ODT: 100 Years Ago
St Clair to St Kilda esplanade proposed –ODT, 19.9.1914
The Amenities Committee of the Dunedin Expansion League is displaying a laudable energy in urging upon the Ocean Beach Domain Board the desirability of adopting a scheme for the construction of an esplanade along the sea-front from St Clair to St Kilda. Plans have been secured from the city engineer, and the Committee has fortified itself by obtaining a report upon Mr McCurdie’s proposals from the engineer of the Harbour Board, the advice of a marine engineer being justly considered to be of importance in connection with such an undertaking.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
10.4.15 DCC: Natural Hazards
10.12.13 ORC restructures directorates
23.11.13 DCC: St Clair esplanade and seawall [public forum] 27 November
18.10.13 DCC: Final vote tally + St Clair boat ramp
26.5.13 [bad news] St Clair seawall #FAIL
10.9.12 John Wilson Ocean Drive … reminder to all of DCC incompetence
30.7.12 ORC on hazard risks and land use controls
28.11.11 St Clair seawall and beach access
7.12.09 Coastal protection zones
14.11.09 From the log books of a twenty-year distress #DCC
24.8.09 1. STS response – appeal 2. Coastal protection – comments

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Sinkhole

Friday, 31 May 2013 4:34 p.m.

St Clair esplanade, Dunedin [image supplied – click to view enlarged]

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Related Posts and Comments:
26.5.13 [bad news] St Clair seawall #FAIL
28.11.11 St Clair seawall and beach access
31.3.11 St Clair esplanade, Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin stormwater: more differences between ORC and DCC

Dunedin residents favour a cleaner harbour and coastal environment?

### ODT Online Thu, 7 Jun 2012
Impasse over stormwater
By Debbie Porteous
Disagreement over improving the quality of stormwater could see the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Regional Council at loggerheads for some time – and may even end up in court. City council infrastructure services committee chairman Cr Andrew Noone says the regional council may be slowly changing its view, but there is a long way to go before the two councils reach a position on which they can agree. The DCC applied to the ORC late last month to renew four 35-year resource consents – expiring in November – to discharge stormwater into Otago Harbour, the ocean at St Clair and Second beaches and Andersons Bay inlet.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

St Clair seawall and beach access

### ODT Online Mon, 28 Nov 2011
Future of damaged beach ramp to be assessed
By David Loughrey
A section of a St Clair beach ramp in Dunedin might soon be removed, after it broke away and fell on to rocks below. The problem is a continuation of damage that occurred about six weeks ago, when heavy seas hit the ramp so hard the concrete cracked, and steel reinforcing was exposed.
Read more + Images

ODT Video: Big surf at St Clair

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

D Scene maintains stadium construction cost is $198 million

### D Scene 10-3-10
Perilous seas (front cover)
Dunedin surfers are concerned debris dumped at St Clair beach will seriously injure someone riding the waves at the popular location. See page 3.
#bookmark

Editorial: Have your say on how your money is spent (page 2)
[excerpt] Dunedin City Council has just put out its draft annual plan for how to spend your ratepayer’s money for consultation.
{continues} #bookmark

Esplanade ‘falling to pieces’ (page 3)
By Wilma McCorkindale
A St Clair Beach surfie claims the popular recreation area is a neglected danger zone. A regular surfer at the beach for the past 30 years Mark Stevenson said he had twice succumbed to “dangerous” sharp bits of steel protruding out of the sand and among rocks at the St Clair Esplanade. He believed the steel scraps had been discarded by tradesmen working on the site, and the council should be ordering them to pick up the scrap.
{continues} #bookmark

Register to read D Scene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

Topping if off (page 6)
Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin tightens bolts on work at the city’s multi-million dollar stadium. The Mayor’s picture opportunity at the stadium site marked work starting on the first of two steel columns that will support the stadium roof.
The stadium construction cost is currently $198 million.
{continues} #bookmark

Zone change will ‘cost jobs’ (page 8)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Otago Chamber of Commerce had made a scathing attack on Dunedin City Council’s proposed harbourside [plan] change 7. “Plain and simple, it’s going to cost the city jobs,” chamber chief John Christie said. “The city council’s own advice, in its own reports, indicated this will cost the city jobs.”
{continues} #bookmark

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Talk: Dunedin on Dunedin (page 10)
Your say
GST on Stadium costs by ID Fincham, Mornington
Dunedin City Council finance and corporate support general manager Athol Stephens replies. #bookmark

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Strong business case for potential Port merger (page 25)
By Alan Wood
A confidential report says “there is a strong business case” for a potential merger between Port Otago and Lyttelton Port of Christchurch, with one of the port owners saying a joining could happen by December. The Otago Regional Council, the owner of Port Otago, is in principle in favour of a port merger with Lyttelton Port of Christchurch though it says further discussions are needed before any merger proceeds.
{continues} #bookmark

Post by Elizabeth Kerr