Save Ocean Beach

The natural and physical resources of Ocean beach and its adjacent City Dunedin are under threat and you can help!

Update: April 2010

Data collection and information covering research into the different aspects of the Ocean Beach is continuing to come to hand, although completing some research is taking a little more time than the Council would ideally prefer. The Project Team's report to the Council on the best options for Ocean Beach can only follow the receipt of all relevant information, and that report will now almost certainly be in the second half of 2010.

On the beach itself, a combination of wind, rain, and very high tides have lowered sand levels significantly. As significant 'steps' have also formed in a number of areas, extreme care should be taken when accessing the beach at any time.


from the Otago Daily Times
By David Loughrey on Fri, 16 Apr 2010

The future management of Dunedin's "first line of defence" against the ocean, the city's coastal dune reserves, will soon be decided after hearings held this week.

The coastal dunes reserves management plan hearings attracted 52 submissions from groups including Save the Otago Peninsula and the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust. Ten people attended Wednesday's hearings to speak.

Under the Reserves Act 1977, local authorities are required to develop reserve management plans.

Dunedin City Council staff identified 10 coastal reserves, including at Brighton, Karitane, Long Beach, Ocean View, Waikouaiti and Warrington, to be included.

The idea was to protect and preserve the natural processes of the dunes, and manage natural, biodiversity, scenic and cultural values, while providing for recreation that did not damage those values.

Hearings committee chairwoman Cr Fliss Butcher said a major issue that emerged at the hearing was horses and dogs on Warrington beach.

There was "definitely" a problem with uncontrolled dogs, and their effect on nesting birds.

The issue of horses may be dealt with in a separate process, but the reserve was a recreational area, and horse-riding was a recreational activity.

Other issues included concerns about erosion, something the committee would bear in mind, Cr Butcher said.

She hoped community groups similar to the Tomahawk/Smaills Beachcare Trust could be set up to look after the reserves, with help from the council.

"It's really important," she said of the plan.

"These dunes are our first line of defence."

The committee would deliberate next week, and the plan would go before the community development committee, before being signed by the council.

- david.loughrey@odt.co.nz


ODT By David Loughrey on Wed, 14 Apr 2010

Differing views have emerged on the possibility of saving low-lying areas in southern Dunedin from sea-level rise.

Consulting engineer Dave Tucker yesterday said engineering solutions were available to deal with the issue, while Sustainable Dunedin co-chairman Phillip Cole, also an engineer, said a retreat from the area was inevitable.

A report released on Monday identified South Dunedin, St Kilda and St Clair as "hot spots" vulnerable to what could be a 1.6m rise in sea levels by 2090.

The report on the effects of climate change in Dunedin was commissioned by the Dunedin City Council, written by University of Otago Emeritus Professor of Geography Blair Fitzharris and released on Monday.

It said the city would eventually have to protect, retreat or evacuate areas including South Dunedin, St Kilda and St Clair.

Other problem areas were the harbourside, the lower Taieri Plain, including the Dunedin airport, populated estuaries along the coast, and the ecosystems of upland conservation regions.

In his report, Prof Fitzharris said the city needed to focus on "adaptation" to deal with the problem, and that was not a one-off event but a process that involved awareness-raising, the development of knowledge and data, and risk assessment.

Some adaptation was occurring on a limited basis, he said.

"However, there remain significant challenges to achieving concrete actions that reduce risks."

Implementing measures such as planned retreat and dune management, building design, prohibition of new structures and siting requirements that accounted for sea-level rise was difficult.

Mr Tucker has previously told the council it needed to form long-term mitigation strategies to deal with the effects of climate change.

Yesterday, he said two areas of Dunedin were not protected by hills: the St Clair and St Kilda beaches area, and the lower harbour near Port Chalmers.

The areas of risk if the sea came through were not just South Dunedin, but all the reclaimed land in the city, including land up to the Dunedin railway station, and up to parts of the University of Otago.

He suggested a "barrage" across the harbour that would take advantage of a natural bottleneck between Port Chalmers and Portobello.

The barrage would link Goat and Quarantine Islands, trapping water in the upper harbour during high tide and releasing it at low tide. That would deal with sea-level rise at the harbour end of the city, and could include turbines to produce electricity.

The beach end of the city "could be saved in some engineering manner".

"You only need to go to Holland," he said, where technology had been developed to keep the North Sea out of the country.

"I'm quite sure if you got consultants from Holland they would come up with ideas to stop sea ingress."