WHETHER or not the council should advocate for the building of a rock wall on the surf beach at Inverloch, to save the surf lifesaving club and at-risk homes along Surf Parade, is potentially the most divisive issue for Inverloch residents in the upcoming Bass Coast Shire Council election.
And it was the key question put to six of the nine Bunurong candidates who turned out at a Meet the Candidates’ event in the town’s football club rooms on Sunday night.
For those who believe a rock wall will destroy the beach and are prepared to put their faith in dune renourishment and reconstruction work alone, there’ll be no shortage of choices when the ballot packs start to arrive in the post from Monday, October 7.
With varying degrees of commitment, five candidates including Leticia Laing, Mat Morgan, Pru Scholtes, Brett Tessari and Brian Robinson all said ‘no’ to a rock wall. Meg Edwards was the only one of the six to give an emphatic ‘yes’ with the caveat being that the construction of a rock wall need only be temporary, saving the surf club and protecting houses, until a more permanent solution can be found.
“Just a yes or no to ‘hard’ engineering please, that means rocks to protect what we have until we see what is needed?” asked local resident Paul Cross, querying whether they would be prepared to support a motion to council along those lines.
They all had their say:
Leticia Laing: As soon as you put rocks there you will lose your beach, and protecting the beach has been the priority of the community, it’s the backbone of the economy. You’ve seen what’s happened on either end of the wall on Bunurong Road.
Mat Morgan: Popularism and a rock wall is not going to save Inverloch but the Cape-to-Cape plan doesn’t say we aren’t going to get hard engineering, which could include groynes to limit the movement of sand. But a rock wall, no.
Pru Scholtes: No, I want to listen to the experts. I’m not an engineer and we’ve got to hear from the experts on the best solution long term. We need to get this right.
Brian Robinson: We need a permanent solution. There are a lot of meetings going on at the moment, but putting a motion to council is not going to make a difference. So, probably no. We need solutions that are going to preserve the beach as it is.”
Brett Tessari: I haven’t heard the motion or how it will be funded but no, it’s just a cheap grab for votes. The bags don’t look great, but they’ve done their job so far. We need a permanent solution.”
Only Meg Edwards came out strongly in favour of a rock wall.
Meg Edwards: The rocks don’t need to be permanent, but they could be put in place while a permanent solution is sought. Rocks would save the surf club and Surf Parade while we see what’s needed permanently, and that could be combined with the shared pathway.
The event had something of a shaky start, but, after that issue was dealt with, moderator Kim White, a local resident and member of the Inverloch Surf Lifesaving Club, set the scene with a few comments of his own and an information video about proportional voting and the importance of getting your preferences right for who will best serve the interests of the Inverloch community on the council.
“This is not a popularity contest. We want to sort out the people who can best represent the interests of Inverloch and be true in representing what we as a community want and be vigorous in doing so,” said Mr White.
Having introduced six of the nine Bunurong candidates present, Mr White said the three that would not be attending had all extended their apologies including Les Larke (no reason given),
Caitlyn Robertson (child’s illness) and Eddie Halaijian (family holiday). Candidates were then given a two-minute opening address.
• Leticia Laing acknowledged the traditional owners and several challenges in the brief time available including the need to review the activity centre plan, revitalise the streetscape and get action on coastal erosion.
• Mat Morgan acknowledged the traditional owners of the ‘stolen Bunurong country’ while also raising accessibility for aged residents as a key problem, and proper town planning which provided affordable housing, green spaces, dog parks and other needed amenities.
• Meg Edwards said council had spent double its budget on a building in Cowes, declared a position on the federal referendum, deemed art should be bought on the basis of gender, put council’s time and money into the establishment of an external ‘Environment Fund’ and penalised the tourism sector with a tax on short-term rentals while neglecting Inverloch and taking action on the old
Wonthaggi High School site. She said the urgent issue was beach erosion and her first order of business, if elected as a councillor, would be to move a motion to immediately protect what we have.
Resolving the shared pathway impasse and providing a hydro spa pool in Wonthaggi for the aged and disabled were other priorities.
• Pru Scholtes said she moved to Inverloch a few years ago to look after her grandchild but three years on, there were still no places available. She bought a house in Wonthaggi only to become embroiled in the Environmental Audit Overlay fiasco, noting that she didn’t receive a single response from councillors.
• Brian Robinson was critical of the present council for pursuing its own agenda rather than addressing the basic needs of the community something he was determined to set right if he was given the opportunity to represent the community. Addressing the erosion problem was a first-order task.
• Brett Tessari said he was proud of what the council had achieved in the past four years, noting that Phillip Island needed some attention, and they’d got it with the cultural centre and other projects. It was now Inverloch and Wonthaggi’s turn, he said.
More than a dozen questions were put to council on issues including service to the aged, whether council should have backed a ‘Yes’ vote at the referendum, whether or not candidates back Bass Coast’s controversial ‘Unlocking Rural Tourism Strategy’ and how the council could attract more events for Inverloch to even out visitor peaks.
Others asked whether Wonthaggi’s desalination plant would attract a nuclear project, why Cowes attracted more council investment than Inverloch, why Inverloch couldn’t be protected from high-rise residential developments and the loss of native vegetation. One local resident wanted to get away from roads, rates, rubbish, reactors and rocks as topics of discussion and asked how council planned to demonstrate its support for the local LGBTIQA+ community.
