Another coastal van park has been identified as a likely future victim of coastal erosion.
Regional councillors in Bundaberg, Queensland, are calling for urgent action to be taken to save the Miara holiday park from being lost to the sea.
As we reported in the latest Grey Nomad Times experts fear global warming could pose an even bigger threat to our most scenic caravan parks than luxury-apartment-building developers.
A number of businesses are literally living in the edge.
At Miara, some 45 kilometres north of Bundaberg, some councillors want rocks in the existing groyne wall to be piled along the eroded parts of the beach. They warn that if something is not done before the high tides at Christmas, more land will be lost at the caravan park.
“We’ve got to do something sooner rather than later,” said Cr Alan Bush. “In private enterprise, we wouldn’t sit there and watch an asset being washed away.”
According to the Bundaberg NewsMail, the problem of erosion at the Miara caravan park has a long history, with a report provided to the council showing it was identified as a problem back in the 1990s.
The Environmental Protection Agency recommended then that the Burnett Shire Council sacrifice the infrastructure on the foreshore and retreat. However, the council decided that would ruin the amenity of the caravan park and began investigation into options to stop further erosion.
In 2005, consultants WMB recommended a groyne field of 10 groynes be built, which could need to be extended if erosion continued. The council decided to install one rock groyne as a trial, and this was finished in September 2006 at a cost of $45,000. Current estimates to install sandbag groynes would be $80,000 each.
The latest council meeting decided that an expert should inspect the beach and report back on the remedial options available.
