Collaroy, Narrabeen seawall: Fight to save coastal strip divides community

Hundreds of people formed a human 'line in the sand' on Saturday, to call council out over an alleged lack of communication and inappropriate solutions to coastal erosion.

Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches president Brendan Donohoe said coastal protection works are vital, but council's solution will ruin the beach.

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He said when waves hit the seawall in big swells, sand will be sucked back out to sea and make the beach unuseable, but if a rock revetment wall was there the sand would largely stay in place.

Council has so far approved eight development applications for 'coastal protection works' that feature a sea wall. This represents 32 of the 49 land parcels requiring coastal protection. The seawalls are being built on private land, with owners paying 80 per cent of the cost and council and the NSW Government 10 per cent each.

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Mr Donohoe said DA notices for the seawalls should have been advertised to the wider community, not just immediate neighbours of those wanting a seawall

"The people who were notified, this was largely the people who wanted this," he said.

A council spokeswoman said DAs for all works had been "advertised as required under the applicable legislation" and that notifications were also placed on site.

She added that there had been "comprehensive community consultation in both 2014 and 2016" for planned coastal protection works. and that the SFNB had been part of this.

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"Due to space constraints on some private properties, a rock revetment-style wall with a uniform alignment would encroach up to 10 metres onto the public beach," she said.

Mr Donohoe said this is "absolutely untrue" and that "with minimal enrotion on the public beach you could have run a rock revetment wall".

"There are some properties that are closer to the high tide mark and that's where you put in a tiny vertical wall and mesh it in with rock revetment walls," he said.

A council spokeswoman said a number of local beaches already have vertical walls in place, they include: Manly, Curl Curl, Dee Why, Collaroy, Bilgola and Basin Beach (Mona Vale) and that "each of these beaches recover naturally following erosion events and continue to be enjoyed by beach users".

Mr Donohoe said vertical seawalls were an outdated 19th century solution to the problem, the council spokeswoman said "both rock revetment and vertical seawalls have been around for centuries".

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The Northern Beaches Review understands that of the 1.3 kilometre stretch of properties requiring protection, around half of this will be done with rock revetment walls.

Council has already approved a rock revetment for the protection works 650 metres south of the current works, which are expected in 2022.

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