Life on the Edge: Adapting Coastal Management in a Changing Climate
It was too dangerous to walk the dog and it was no longer a place of enjoyment. Then came the rain. The storms idled over the coast, unleashing deluge after deluge. There was nowhere for the water to go but over the levees and across the valley plains. The flood levels were unprecedented.
Houses on high stilts were submerged, entire communities evacuated. And when they returned, the clean up!
Watching the chaos unfold around us we thought we were lucky with our lot down by the lagoon. Sure, we couldn’t get insurance for flooding either, but we were sheltered from the large waves and river torrents. But we were starting to notice that the water was coming higher each year, on those really high tides and during some of the storms. The lawn died last year when it was flooded with saltwater for days and we had to move the veggie gardens. But we were alright for now, and besides, there were too many properties like ours around the lagoon for the government not to fix the problem before it got too bad. Right?
Sadly, this vision is not one of the year 2150 or even 2100. This is today’s reality for many Australian coastal communities. It illustrates the growing and compounding threats faced by the many Australians who live perched on the edge of the continent.
In 2015, we saw water levels rise in Lake Macquarie and overflow onto the streets of the surrounding suburbs, turning them into knee-deep waterways.
In 2016, we saw infamous images of a pool from a beachfront yard lying on Collaroy Beach following dramatic storm erosion.
In 2018, we saw the residents from 18 beachfront homes evacuated from Wamberal as their foundations hung above an eroding beach.
Bribie Island in southeast Queensland… became so thin in 2022 that storm
