NEWS DESK
Grainy narrative in tale of two beaches Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au SAND has become a precious and fought over commodity, and no more so than near some of Australia’s most expensive and exclusive real estate: Portsea. At one end of the town, near the iconic pier, sand has disappeared several times over the past decade, starting in 2009 when dredging of the South Channel changed its shape, causing a new, damaging swell to erode a part of the beach near the Portsea Hotel. With sand trucked in at great expense to taxpayers, the beach was restored, but not to its former glory, or permanently. A couple of years later the imported sand had gone, revealing an underlying reef and requiring expensive sandbags to protect further incursions by the sea. Mornington Peninsula Shire and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning are now looking at spending millions of dollars to build a rock groyne to capture sand dredged from the nearby seabed (“Rock groyne ‘key’ to $20m Portsea beach plan” The News 29/6/20). About 2.5 kilometres further west, sand has also become a valuable commodity, but this time it is a build up of the fine grains that are enabling an adjoining land owner to claim part of the beach, increasing both the size and worth of his property. Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox has successfully been down that track before, being given approval by the land titles office on Christmas Eve 2013 to extend his property boundary onto
A HELICOPTER partly obscured by hedges on the family compound of Lindsay Fox at Point King Beach, Portsea. Fox family companies have applied for ownership of an area covered by sand between the property and the high tide mark. Picture: Yanni
Point King Beach by about 45 metres. Mr Fox made his claim, based on an ancient law of England never tested in Australia, after a build-up of sand saw the high water mark move even further out to sea from his foreshore property boundary.
This interpretation of common law known as the “doctrine of accretion” enables boundaries to be varied if adjoining land is subject to “natural” rather than “artificial” change. In the six and a half years since Mr Fox was allowed to extend the bounda-
Mornington-based planner Watsons is seeking the boundary change application on behalf of Mr Fox’s family companies. In a separate move, Mr Fox is understood to be challenging planning regulations that, after being changed in 2014, limited the uses of the land within his extended boundary. Shire councillors last week ordered CEO John Baker to “urgently review” any applications to the Supreme Court by Mr Fox “or any related person against the Planning Minister [Richard Wynne]” or any applications made to the Titles Office relating to the boundaries of the Fox property at Point King. Mr Baker is to report his findings to council’s 11 August meeting. Meanwhile, debate still surrounds why sand can build up at one Portsea beach while disappearing from another. Channel deepening has scientific credibility, but some people still hold the belief that it is a natural occurrence. Whatever the reason, sand is proving a costly commodity for taxpayers and a possible financial windfall for others.
ry of his not insignificant holding near Point King, the sand has again built up and he is again seeking permission to move his boundary towards the receding high tide level. It has been estimated the “new” land involved covers 4700 square metres.
Waste water study up and running Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au WORK has started on a feasibility study into connecting the Mornington Peninsula’s hinterland to a permanent source of water from the Eastern Treatment Plant. The Bangholme plant discharges around 350 million litres of treated waste water a day into Bass Strait at Boags Rocks, near Gunnamatta. The scheme – long promoted by Mornington Peninsula Shire and peninsula MPs – would allow landowners to access the recycled water as it
makes its way down the length of the peninsula to the South Eastern Outfall. This renewable supply of treated water would ease pressures imposed on primary producers by climate change, boost food production and strengthen the region’s capabilities against bushfires. Flinders MP Greg Hunt arranged $300,000 from the federal government for a feasibility study into the scheme which has been added to with money from Mornington Peninsula Shire, South East Water and not-for-profit community group Hinterland Environmental Water Scheme.
“The economic sustainability and growth of the peninsula’s hinterland is limited by water availability,” the group’s Russell Joseph said. “We currently have farmers and firefighters relying on ground water, farm dams or carting water to a few water tanks. “This climate adaptive project would make the hinterland less vulnerable to bushfire and secure its economic future. It would further develop agricultural industries that are fully compatible with the green wedge policy.” The feasibility study, to be completed by mid-2021, will investigate the
long-term water needs of the hinterland community. It will explore the potential to increase agricultural production and take advantage of new horticultural opportunities by having drought-proof water supply. Other aims are to increase food production and create jobs; increase the fire-fighting capability; provide water for parks and reserves; reduce reliance on surface water and groundwater for irrigation, allowing these water sources to replenish and improve waterway health, and reduce the amount of waste water going out to sea. The mayor Cr Sam Hearn sees the
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www.ryehotel.com.au Southern Peninsula News
22 July 2020
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