{"id":454626,"date":"2026-02-03T00:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/454626\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:29:17","slug":"denmark-volunteers-unite-for-coastal-rehabilitation-in-wake-of-destructive-tourist-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/454626\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark volunteers unite for coastal rehabilitation in wake of destructive tourist season"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 450 kilometres south of Perth on a remote stretch of pristine beach, 50 or so people spent their Saturday laying out weed matting and dragging around tree branches.<\/p>\n

The volunteers, aged from eight to 88, are part of Friends of Boat Harbour, a community-led group trying to mend the damage caused by tourists who descend on their local beach each summer.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Some of the volunteers were as young as eight. (Supplied: Benita Cattalini)<\/p>\n

“It’s a beautiful spot to come down to and go for a bit of a walk,” Shire of Denmark revegetation officer Anais Schneider said.<\/p>\n

“Some people come to fish, some people come to swim. It’s a very rugged landscape and there’s quite a few plants here that I have seen nowhere else in Denmark, so it’s quite a unique little spot.”<\/p>\n

Destroyed by tourism<\/p>\n

But the beach’s beauty is also its undoing, with the influx of visitors \u2014 and their four-wheel drives \u2014 causing significant damage to the dunes.<\/p>\n

“The Great Southern [region] is iconic now [and considered] some of the best beaches in Australia. If you can drive a car you can get here,” volunteer Liz Jack said.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

The beach, accessible only by a four-wheel drive track, is a popular spot. (ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett)<\/p>\n

“And there isn’t anybody monitoring whether you’re camping out here or not because we don’t have enough resources.<\/p>\n

“We’re not monitoring the impact of tourism on local communities sufficiently from an environmental perspective and a community-impact perspective.<\/p>\n

“It’s all about money, it’s all about markets, it’s all about economic input into the state, [which are] important \u2014 don’t get me wrong \u2014 but this is the cost.”<\/p>\n

Volunteer Benita Cattalini said the issue was largely a product of ignorance, with drivers unaware that when they left the designated track, they could be causing irreparable damage.<\/p>\n

“It’s the keen drivers of four-wheel drives and motorbikes that like to come out, which is great, but \u2026 we beg of them, please don’t drive on the sand dunes,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Volunteers roll out weed mats. (Supplied: Benita Cattalini)<\/p>\n

Ms Cattalini said the materials alone for that stage of the revegetation had cost more than $20,000, and that was not counting the habitat loss.<\/p>\n

“Just over there to my left, there’s plants that take 100 years to cover those rocks, and if people drive over the top of them, they don’t recover,” she said.<\/p>\n

Volunteers fighting back<\/p>\n

The Friends of Boat Harbour volunteers were able to complete stage one of the rehabilitation project.<\/p>\n

Their efforts have paved the way for the planting of about 2,500 native plants, currently held in the Shire of Denmark’s nursery, once the wet weather arrives in autumn.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Volunteers use native brush cuttings gathered from nearby bush to help stabilise the sand. (Supplied: Benita Cattalini)<\/p>\n

“I’ve also taken about 1,000 cuttings, so we’re trying to use endemic plants [from the area] that have the best chance of success because they’re used to the harsh conditions,” Ms Schneider said.<\/p>\n

“We’ll hopefully \u2014 over the next couple of years \u2014 see this area [get] back to how it’s supposed to look.”<\/p>\n

The project, supported by CoastWA grants and the Shire of Denmark, forms part of the shire’s coastal management plan for areas with a high risk of erosion.<\/p>\n

The shire is also trialling a closure of the headland.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Volunteers say education is the key to changing behaviour. (ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett)<\/p>\n

Shire of Denmark director of infrastructure and assets, Rob Westerberg, said it was a pristine piece of land.<\/p>\n

“Our environmental groups are very passionate \u2014 and so is the Shire of Denmark \u2014 in trying to maintain it for future generations,” he said.<\/p>\n

Despite their fears for the landscape, the locals remained welcoming.<\/p>\n

“We’re not trying to stop people coming here, we just want to look after it so it’s here forever,” Ms Cattalini said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 450 kilometres south of Perth on a remote stretch of pristine beach, 50 or so people spent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[58077,64,63,17713,99,17710,234579,87601,218412,234578,18570,45],"class_list":["post-454626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-4wd","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beach","tag-business","tag-erosion","tag-friends-of-boat-harbour","tag-great-southern","tag-sand-dunes","tag-shire-of-denmark","tag-volunteers","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}