Save Henley Dunes – coastal ecology

Save Henley Dunes – coastal ecology

Alison Harvey

I moved to Henley South in 1987, and although I have a long family history in the area, I did not know anyone. I met families at the Henley Community Kindergarten and Henley Beach Primary School and began to make social connections. Within a few years, I joined the Henley and Grange Residents’ Association, the Henley and Grange Arts Society, the Henley and Grange Historical Society, and the newly formed Henley Dunes Care Group.

The Henley Dunes Care Group was formed by community members in 1992. As a longtime Trees for Life grower with an interest in gardening and native plants, I became a founding member. The dunes of West Beach, Henley South, Henley Beach and Grange had been created as a result of sand-drift fencing placement by the council over the previous 20 years. These dunes were weed infested, had very low plant diversity, had too many access tracks resulting in trampled bare sand patches, and contained minimal native vegetation.

Instigated by Henley and Grange Council’s Environment Officer Damian Moroney, this small group of dedicated volunteers worked on vegetation surveys, weed control, foot traffic control, plant propagation, revegetation, and production of educational pamphlets and interpretive signage. Our first planting day was held in June 1993 on the then bare dunes directly north of the Grange Jetty.

Unable to purchase endemic dune plant seedlings, we collected seeds from the remnant Tennyson Dunes and established a plant propagation nursery in the south-eastern corner of the Henley Memorial Oval complex. We then propagated and introduced thousands of native seedlings into the dunes from Grange to West Beach over the next ten years. After the amalgamation of Henley and Grange Council into the City of Charles Sturt in 1997, we shared the plant nursery with the Tennyson Dunes Group and Semaphore Dunes Group, and met as combined groups to plan projects, propagation, plantings and community education publications.

My short stints working as SA Regional Coast Care Facilitator in 1997, 2000 and 2003 gave me insight into the kinds of issues being tackled by coastal communities from Willunga to Whyalla, and provided me with information, skills and strategies to share with the dune care groups and Henley and Grange Residents’ Association.

In 1997, we were successful in gaining a Coastcare grant to produce a series of coastal interpretive signs to be installed along our coast. We combined with the Marine Discovery Centre at Henley Beach to complete this project of eight initial signs. This association continued on, with more than twenty coastal interpretive signs being installed along the City of Charles Sturt coastline over the years. Subsequent Coastcare grants enabled us to undertake more fencing, revegetation and community education projects.

As a dune care representative, and in conjunction with Jim Douglas from the Henley and Grange Residents’ Association, I made representation to the Torrens Catchment Management Board in favour of the removal of horses from the lower Torrens catchment and the creation of wetlands to improve the quality of stormwater flowing onto our beaches. In 1994, I spoke about the need for well vegetated stable dunes for protection