{"id":633820,"date":"2026-06-11T22:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/633820\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:08:30","slug":"towns-along-400km-of-wa-coastline-battle-extreme-erosion-from-winter-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/633820\/","title":{"rendered":"Towns along 400km of WA coastline battle extreme erosion from winter storms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Small business owner Glen Trebilcock has been forced to take matters into his own hands to stop his livelihood from going into the ocean.<\/p>\n

About 6 metres of beach in front of Mr Trebilcock’s hotel in the coastal hamlet of Lancelin, 125 kilometres north of Perth, eroded from a severe storm more than a week ago.<\/p>\n

\"Glen<\/p>\n

Rapid erosion is threatening Glen Trebilcock’s business. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Mr Trebilcock said he had spent about $10,000 on sand alone to protect his business, but in the past 15 months, he had seen about 50 metres of Lancelin’s northern beach disappear.<\/p>\n

The hotel owner is not the only one facing this dilemma in the region, with people calling on the government to save their beloved seaside towns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Time running out\"Sand<\/p>\n

Glen Trebilcock is desperately trying to protect his property. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Lancelin is a low-lying town, and a large dune that protects it from inundation<\/a> now looks more like a cliff face.<\/p>\n

“Once that breaks, we’re in a world of pain. It’s going to affect everybody,” Mr Trebilcock said.<\/p>\n

“You’ll be sitting here with a fishing rod, cooking your own dinner.”<\/p>\n

The town’s local government, the Gingin Shire, has been lobbying the state government for support and received $150,000 to stabilise the dune last year.<\/p>\n

However, this washed away in about six months.<\/p>\n

\"Linda<\/p>\n

Linda Balcombe says she is losing sleep over the erosion threat.\u00a0 (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Shire president Linda Balcombe said an extra $100,000 of shire-funded renourishment had disappeared within 10 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Government wants us to investigate why [the erosion] is happening. That could take 18 months,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We just don’t have that time. We need to be able to have some funding options to help us now.<\/p>\n

“I lose sleep over it.”<\/p>\n

Thousands of dollars of sand renourishment has been unsuccessful. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Same calls, more urgency\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Port Denison, about 240km north of Lancelin, warnings about potentially destructive erosion<\/a> have become more dire since last winter.<\/p>\n

Irwin Shire president Isabelle Scott said a sand wall that protected millions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure had been significantly damaged in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Isabelle<\/p>\n

Isabelle Scott says concern is growing in Port Denison. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Behind it sits the recreation centre, playground, skate park and shire-owned retirement village, which houses low-income earners.<\/p>\n

Cr Scott said 40 people lived in the aged care units.<\/p>\n

“Currently, there is no accommodation to be had in Dongara [or Port Denison], so it would create huge upheaval to their lives should it be impacted,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Erosion<\/p>\n

Isabelle Scott says Ocean Drive is close to slipping into the water. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Retreat may be the only option<\/p>\n

At its worst, the erosion is just metres from the nearby road, but Cr Scott said too much money had been spent to give up on the area.<\/p>\n

“It’s been quite traumatic for us,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We do believe the level of infrastructure in this area means it’s not possible to retreat.”<\/p>\n

Coastal oceanography professor Charitha Pattiaratchi said it could cost up to $1 billion to protect WA’s coastline indefinitely.<\/p>\n

He said strategic sacrifices needed to be made.<\/p>\n

\"Charitha<\/p>\n

Charitha Pattiaratchi says maintaining all of WA’s coast is too expensive. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)<\/p>\n

“People who are living in those vulnerable areas cannot expect the state government, the local councils to actually put money into a losing kind of a system,” Professor Pattiaratchi said.<\/p>\n

“It is an emotive issue in terms of people to retreat, but it may be the only option [when] you’re looking at the cost.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lancelin beaches were hit by a recent storm surge. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Locals, tourists impacted<\/p>\n

Further north in Horrocks, a storm surge has eaten away at beaches and destroyed the jetty.<\/p>\n

Long-term local Reg Reynolds said the erosion was “absolutely terrible”.<\/p>\n

“This is the worst I’ve seen it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We can’t fish down there, and even if we could, we can’t get a bloody boat into the water.<\/p>\n

“We’re losing tourists left, right and centre.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A recent storm surge destroyed the jetty at Horrocks. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

A public statement released by the Northampton Shire said parts of the dune system were unstable and it was working with relevant agencies to assess the damage.<\/p>\n

Mr Reynolds said decade-old sandbags at the main beach had been invaluable in protecting a community kitchen and playground.<\/p>\n

“They’re the only saviour we’ve got,” he said.<\/p>\n

To stay or to go?<\/p>\n

Back in Lancelin, Mr Trebilcock said retreat was not viable.<\/p>\n

“You hear the words retreat and you think, well, hang on a minute, this is my business, this is my livelihood, this is our community.<\/p>\n

“Where am I going to go?”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The ocean continues to eat away at the Lancelin coastline. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

The WA government said it supported coastal communities through the CoastWA program, with $24 million committed over the next three years.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said the state worked closely with local governments to respond to urgent risks on a case-by-case basis, including ongoing work with the Shire of Gingin to support Lancelin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Small business owner Glen Trebilcock has been forced to take matters into his own hands to stop his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[214487,46216,1397,214485,214484,214481,214483,214486,214488,90,214482,56,54,55,17285],"class_list":["post-633820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-beach-washed-away-at-lancelin","tag-coastal-erosion","tag-environment","tag-inundation","tag-king-tide","tag-lancelin-erosion","tag-lancelin-pub","tag-midwest-news","tag-northampton-shire","tag-science","tag-shire-of-gingin","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}