Mornington Peninsula Shire figures show there are about 2000 boat sheds and bathing boxes in Victoria, and the council is the authority for more than 1300 of them.
Despite the threats of coastal erosion and sea level rises, beach boxes remain highly prized, and many remain in the same families for generations. Earlier this year, a beach box sold at Mount Martha for $1 million.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor Anthony Marsh said wild weather and big tides had stripped wood from some of the bathing boxes at Mount Martha North.
“Obviously, a lot of wave action puts a fair bit of pressure on these boxes,” he said. “And the problem is once the bits [of wood] fall off, they become effectively battering rams. That’s been a long-standing problem.”
While Brighton’s bathing boxes are heritage listed, those on the Mornington Peninsula do not have that protection. Marsh said he would support heritage listing for the peninsula’s bathing boxes and boat sheds provided there were no unforeseen circumstances that would place undue conditions on them.
He said the council needed permission from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action before it could implement any substantial protective measures, and that groynes should be considered for imperilled locations, including Mount Martha North.
“It’s not just about beach boxes,” he said. “The actual beach is disappearing, so it’s about protecting the amenity for everyone.”
Beach boxes under threat.Credit: Simon Schluter
For decades, beach boxes on the Mornington Peninsula, including in Mount Martha North, have borne the brunt of king tides and wild weather.
Mornington Peninsula Beach Box Association president Peter Clarke said the beach had now disappeared in front of the boxes at Mount Martha North and some other areas where there used to be plenty of sand.
He said the council and state government were responsible for protecting beach boxes, but the coastal erosion problems did not attract sufficient funding from the state.
Attempts to replenish sand on the beach at Mount Martha North have largely failed as it washed away. Clarke also called for groynes to be built at Mount Martha North to help rehabilitate the beach. He said the problem had accelerated over the past decade, and he remembered a time when sand stretched up to 30 metres in front of the beach boxes at low tide.
“There are photos of it from 20 years ago, and it’s a beautiful pristine beach,” he said.
Peter Clarke in Blairgowrie. Credit: Simon Schluter
Former Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Simon Brooks said the beach was restoring itself outside his mother’s beach box in Dromana. He attributed the rehabilitation to the end of mechanical cleaning of the sand at the beach.
“Both debris that has washed up plus vegetation has stabilised that section of foreshore,” he said. “It’s the first time in many years the beach has been in that condition. It is interesting to observe how the vegetation is re-establishing itself.”
A spokesman for the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action said it was working with land managers and the Mornington Peninsula Shire to monitor the effect of coastal erosion on bathing boxes in some locations.
“We’re also leading the development of coastal hazard risk management and adaptation strategies to understand how the coastline will change over time and the best way to support land managers through this,” he said.
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