Erosion plan gets $102k boost

A long-term plan to combat erosion at Emu Point is one step closer after the City of Albany received a $102,000 grant from the Department of Transport last Wednesday.

The funding is part of the State Government’s new coastal adaptation and protection grants program announced last year, which distributed more than $1 million to 13 projects across WA beaches.

Works and services executive director at the City of Albany, Matthew Thompson, said the funding would be spent in coming weeks.

“We are happy to get the grant and really pleased our projects are getting looked at and have priority over others in the State,” he said.

Mr Thompson said possibilities, including data monitoring, remedial works to structures such as sea walls and sand renourishment, would be based on professional advice from a consultant employed by the City last month.

“We are doing some survey-type work at the moment, the results of which are too early to tell,”he said.

“That data will be used to gain an understanding of how the system works and we will use that information to develop and implement a long-term solution.”

Thousands of cubic metres of sand were shifted from Middleton Beach to Emu Point in August in a temporary trial to slow the ongoing erosion.

Mr Thompson said that move had been “quite successful”.

“We are happy with how that has gone … we expected it to erode and nothing has happened that we didn’t expect to happen,” he said.

“We have said all along we won’t continue to do reactive works and that we will hold the line and keep doing work on finding out the best possible long-term solution and implement that later down the track.

“In the meantime, we are focusing on holding things in place so they don’t worsen until the long-term solution is determined.”