CALEB Beeby of Tarwin Lower likes to take a break on his morning rural waste pickup round by stopping off at the Flat Rocks Carpark, along Cape Paterson-Inverloch Road near Inverloch.
But he got more than he bargained for on Wednesday morning this week when he saw the waves breaking through the walkway to the beach at the height of the storm and the top of the morning tide.
“I stop here quite regularly but I’ve never seen the waves coming through to the carpark like that. It was pretty freaky,” said Caleb Beeby this morning.
“It looks as if there’s been quite a bit of damage along the coast as well.”
It was just after high tide, at about 7.30am, and even though the predicted high tide level was only 2.6 metres at Inverloch Surf Beach, when combined with the gale-force westerly winds and the storm surge of the ocean, waves were also breaking over the rockwall near the corner of Cape Paterson-Inverloch Road and Surf Parade.
A few early morning risers witnessed the relentless wave action around the rock wall and also at the sandbag barrier in front of the Inverloch Surf Club.
However, while the sandbags held up to the constant smashing of the surf, the big waves were causing damage on either side, undercutting the walk from the surf club carpark to the beach and also causing the dunes to cave-in on the eastern side of the sandbag wall.
Mark Spykers, Hydrographic Services Manager at Gippsland Ports, explained on Gippsland ABC Radio on Wednesday morning how a relatively lower high tide could still break through and cause the damage it has done to the Inverloch coast overnight.
“There have actually been consistently higher levels across Gippsland all the way from Inverloch right through to Lakes Entrance, and that's primarily to do with the wind. Without this weather event we would normally see normal tides. We’re actually in what's called the middle of neep tide cycle, between a new and a full moon. So, the tides aren't abnormally high, but we're experiencing, higher water because of these strong winds and low barometric pressure. The low barometric pressure tends to draw the water level up and the high westerly winds tend to push the ocean up against the coast, creating higher than normal water levels.”
Mr Spykers acknowledged that the storm surge could have been even higher had the winds coincided with the highest end of the tide cycle and he also expected the incident on Wednesday morning to be repeated at 4pm to 5pm in the afternoon.
“It certainly would have and we'll probably see that this evening. So, the overnight high tide was a little lower and we’re expecting it to sort of peak at around, probably between four and five, depending where you are on the coast this afternoon. It'll sort of correlate with the high tide then. So, we're probably expecting it to go even higher then,” he said.
Mr Spykers also explained how a super low pressure system was driving the wind and the waves up from down south.
“The low pressure system is sort of south of Tasmania and actually draws the surface of the water up, and in combination with the wind, creates these extra high tides that we're seeing.”
So, will this afternoon’s high tides, at between 4pm and 5pm along the surf beach at Inverloch break through or cause the damage it did this morning, only time will tell.
It was a wild night around the region with power off to 154 Ausnet customers at Mirboo North as residents there braced for the worst.
Ausnet reported 40 faults across the Gippsland region and power off to about 1000 customers.
SES Units were busy with both Foster and Warragul crews reporting plenty of callouts, removing trees from roads and private property and also clearing trees away on the way to remove trees.
Winds gusted to 119km/h at Wilsons Promontory at 8.12am on Wednesday morning and were still gusting well above 100km/h at 10am.
The wind also played havoc with rubbish bin collection days across the region with hundreds of bins knocked over and the sight of rubbish and green waste strewn down the street common.
Issued at 4:33am on Wednesday, August 28, the Bureau of Meteorology has renewed its coastal warning “damaging surf along the South West and Central coasts combined with elevated sea levels throughout today”.
The further damage to the dunes and coastal vegetation at Inverloch and sea water breaking through to the Flat Rocks Carpark, and crashing over Cape Paterson-Inverloch Road comes within days of the long-awaited release of the Cape to Cape Resilience Plan, designed to set out a response to just these conditions, high tides and storm surge, and the impact of climate change.
To read the plan and to fill out the survey or make a submissions go to the Engage Vic website and search Cape to Cape Resilience Project. The closing date for feedback is at 11:59pm on Sunday, September 22, 2024.
Go to: https://engage.vic.gov.au/cape-cape-resilience-project
