A PETITION delivered to State Parliament last week, calling for urgent engineering works to protect the main beach at Inverloch and the surf lifesaving club, garnered 2575 signatures in five days.
Many more people have since added their names as well.
The petition, tabled by Eastern Victoria MLC Melina Bath in the Legislative Council last Thursday, September 12, will trigger a debate about the impact of coastal erosion on the Inverloch Surf
Lifesaving Club, surf beach, dunes and public and private assets and what to do about it on Wednesday, October 16.
Visiting the beach recently, to see the damage from last week’s storm firsthand, Ms Bath claimed the government had its head in the sand over what was needed to address the problems at Inverloch.
“Disingenuous consultation and layers of government bureaucracy have stymied active intervention, which would have better protected the coastline,” Ms Bath said. “In the past 10 years over 70 metres of beachfront has been lost to erosion.
“The Cape-to-Cape Resilience Project draft plan, led by the Labor government, has taken four years to produce and offers no actionable recommendations,” she said.
“The community sentiment embodied in this petition makes a compelling case for the State Government to save the Inverloch Surf Lifesaving Club and one of Victoria’s safest and most iconic surf beaches.”
Ms Bath emphasised that the government needs to look a few hundred metres down the beach in both directions to see examples of engineering solutions that are being used to good effect.
“The overwhelming response to this petition shows that the Inverloch community is extremely concerned about the future of their much-loved beach and public assets.
“Residents understand the critical role the surf beach and lifesaving club play in the town’s social and economic future and are determined not to let it wash away.
“Dune restoration and engineering solutions to combat coastal erosion are long overdue,” said Ms Bath.
Ms Bath thanked the surf club representatives, president Glenn Arnold and treasurer Stephen Duncan for their leadership on the issue.