29-07-2025
Aussie beachside town to be wiped off the map as locals are given a devastating date of when their homes will be swept into the ocean
Residents of a South Australian town fear their beachside paradise could soon be washed into the ocean as they frantically build break-walls to stop the erosion.
Homeowners in Pelican Point are desperately preparing a 'coastal adaptation' strategy with their local council as they try to save their town.
Property owners along Bungaloo Bay have been constructing sea walls on Crown Land over the past three decades - using rocks as heavy as 3.5tonnes.
The District Council of Grant initially opposed the initiative and took legal action against the makeshift barriers, before changing tune and abandoning it in 2017.
'The council acknowledges these hazards and has commenced a joint project to reduce the risk of erosion and inundation,' a council spokesman said.
'The project aims to identify hazards and associated risks for each coastal township by 2050, and up to the year 2100, and evaluate options to adapt and protect our communities into the future.'
Their report suggests there is a 50 per cent chance their town could be wiped from the map by the year 2100.
Resident Adrian Ferguson told the ABC he had put up a break-wall between his property and the Southern Ocean.
The District Council of Grant believes much of the town will erode away in the next 75 years (above, council modelling of erosion)
'The last shack to our right was done just before the recent storms,' he said.
'Last year, they had stones hitting their windows and the waves were hitting the windows. This year it's just seaweed.'
He said, so far, the break-walls have been effective in preventing erosion.
Mr Ferguson said some owners' motives were purely financial, as he and others doubted the scientific modelling.
Many locals are looking to protect their investments as sea levels rise with some homes worth as much as $700,000.
'I think the costing of the shacks has got out of control like everything, but I don't think the sea is rising… you talk to the old guys here, they've seen this before,' Mr Ferguson said.
The council's draft action plan said Pelican Point had several risk factors in the case of climate change-driven sea level rises.
'The town's low elevation makes it highly vulnerable to inundation during storm events, which is likely to cause substantial damage to both public and private assets,' the strategy read.
Community surveys of Pelican Point and nearby townships found nearly all of the population would support changes to their homes as part of the adaptation strategy.
Only a third, however, supported moving their own property.
'Several [residents] demand immediate action, fearing irreversible damage; others question the need for drastic measures, seeing changes as natural,' a report on the survey stated.
'Scepticism exists toward climate modelling and long-term projections.'
