Save Ocean Beach

The City Council's applications for retrospective consents for the erosion control work at Ocean Beach have been scheduled for hearing by the Otago Regional Council at the end of June. (Specific details of those works were set out in the February 2009 update.). As previously advised, most of the comprehensive studies needed before the Long Term Management Plan can be prepared are now to hand. The studies will be completed later this year. In the near future, a Project Team will be appointed to consider the data that has been collected to date.

Otago Daily Times
By David Loughrey on Mon, 21 Apr 2008
Accepting the eventual inundation of Kettle Park and a "managed retreat'' from properties in the St Kilda area are two of the more controversial methods suggested to deal with the erosion of Dunedin's beaches.

Those, and the views of 49 others, will form the basis of a Dunedin City Council hearing during the next three days into an issue that has attracted strong interest among beach users and the wider public.

The hearing is a response to investigations into stabilising the beaches, made more urgent last year when large portions of the sandhills were washed away during a stormy winter, leaving a perilously thin strip protecting Kettle Park.

There has been good progress with the various studies required before a long term plan for Ocean Beach can be developed. Many of these studies are now to hand, and the remainder should be completed over the next few months. When the information from all studies is available, options for a long term plan for the Ocean Beach will be identified. Meanwhile, favourable weather conditions over the last few months have meant that overall sand levels on the beach are as high as they have been for decades.

Otago Daily Times
By Chris Morris on Tue, 17 Mar 2009

The Dunedin City Council has applied for retrospective resource consent to avoid any possibility of a legal entanglement over emergency beach repair work at St Clair and Middle beaches almost two years ago.

The consents, lodged with the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council, were for a series of projects undertaken following storms in 2007, which caused severe erosion and threatened parts of Kettle Park.

The consents covered the transportation of rocks and sand to the eroded areas, the construction of rock "reno mattresses" to protect the beaches and dunes, and the removal of clay from the area for safety reasons.

The consents also allowed for more work to be undertaken should a repeat of the erosion occur this winter.

Yesterday, council parks and reserves team leader Martin Thompson said the five-year consents would cover the time it was expected to take to finish new beach management plans for the area.

The Council will be carrying out the following surveys and assessments in order to gather as much background information and data as possible.

Time heals all wounds, nature is taking its' course in replenishing the sand at ocean beach.

Cam-Era – St Clair A

Cam-Era – St Clair B

Updated every 30 minutes.

from NIWA website
Ocean Beach is a 3 km long sandy bay in south Dunedin running from the St. Clair headland in the west to Lawyers Head in the east. The beach, located just 4 km from the centre of Dunedin city, is the main recreational beach in the region, being popular for surfing, swimming, and walking. At St. Clair, the Esplanade is popular with visitors for the numerous restaurants and cafes, while in the centre and eastern end of the bay the former back dune environment has been developed into sports fields and golf links.

The beach faces due south, and is exposed to the dominant south westerly winds blowing off the Pacific Ocean and frequent high energy southerly storm events. Sand is transported to Ocean Beach by a prevailing southerly current and the dominant southwest swell conditions.

In pre-European time, the Ocean Beach area was characterised by small sand deposits at the western end, increasingly large sandhills to the east, and a hinterland dominated by a lagoon and swamps. As early as 1876 sand was being removed from the dune to fill the low-lying hinterland to meet the growing needs for housing in the developing city. There has also been a long history of coastal erosion issues at Ocean Beach: breaching of the dunes producing sea flooding in the low-lying hinterland suburbs was reported in the 1880s and 1890s; a seawall has been present at St. Clair since 1888; and dune stabilization using brush fences and marram plantings was first started in the 1890s. These erosion issues have continued at periodic times over the last 100 years, with episodes of rapid dune erosion being interspersed with periods of stability and dune growth. The last major erosion episode occurred in 2007, when up to 20 m of dune retreat was experienced, and an estimated 200,000 m3 of sand was removed from the dunes and beach. As a result of this erosion, the DCC were forced to undertake emergency works to protect both public and private assets.

As a consequence of the 2007 erosion episode, the DCC have embarked on an investigations programme to better quantify the nature and magnitude of the coastal processes operating within Ocean Beach, which will allow better decisions on future beach management to be made. The Cam-Era project is part of this investigations programme, producing much needed real time information on wave conditions, movements of rip currents, and beach responses. Without the Cam-Era site, this type of data would only be available from irregular visual observations, photographs, and beach surveys, none of which are able to supply a continuous picture of coastal processes and beach responses.

Favourable weather conditions over the summer to date have meant the volume of sand on the beach continues to rise steadily.

In the meantime, focus group meetings with key stakeholders continued during December and January, with the final group of meetings with these stakeholders scheduled for mid- February. Ecological studies (fauna and flora) of the area has now been completed.

That report on the area's ecology will be the first of a number of comprehensive reports to be received that will eventually provide the information and data needed for the draft plan for Ocean Beach.

From the Otago Daily Times website
The Dunedin City Council says it is looking at all options as it plans the defence of the city's most popular beaches from erosion caused by pounding Pacific waves. Study of the shape of sands to come A multimillion-dollar extension of the St Clair seawall as far as Lawyers Head, to protect St Kilda and Middle beaches, is among extreme "hard options" council staff say cannot be ruled out, while a host of "soft solutions" each come with their own problems. Council parks and reserves team leader Martin Thompson said yesterday a series of projects aimed at gathering data about the state of the three beaches was either finished, nearing completion or soon to start.
The work began in the months after a dramatic series of storms in 2007 caused significant erosion in the area - repeated when the storms returned last year - and threatened to send parts of Kettle Park crumbling into the sea. The projects launched in response included the work of two University of Otago students, who were conducting a monthly GPS survey, mapping the form and volume of sand on the beaches and how it changed over time. Also planned to start soon was a survey using ground-penetrating radar to locate the edges of the old landfill under Kettle Park, parts of which had been exposed by the severe storms in 2007, Mr Thompson said. The projects tied in with work already completed, including mapping the seafloor offshore from the beaches, ongoing monitoring of rip tides - which influenced erosion "hotspots" - and weather information from automated cameras at St Clair. Mr Thompson said the data would then be used in hydrodynamic computer modelling, mapping the impact of possible solutions - from a seawall extension to simply restocking the area with sand - on the beaches over a 50-year period. Other measures to be modelled included the construction of an offshore artificial reef, to dissipate the power of waves, he said. The modelling was expected to begin once the council established a new project team to co-ordinate the next stages of the work, possibly as soon as June this year, he said.
However, it could take the best part of a year to identify the preferred solutions and prepare a draft report recommending the best options to councillors, he said. The initiatives would then be presented for public consultation, and possibly become the subject of a resource consent hearing, meaning any construction could be several years away, he said. The data collection and modelling work had a budget of $335,000 for this year, but some of the possible solutions could be "quite expensive". Extending the St Clair seawall - considered an unlikely example, but one that could not be ruled out - was likely to cost "tens of millions of dollars" and raise significant aesthetic questions, he warned. "That would be a huge cost and maybe quite a structurally intrusive solution." Smaller "soft solutions", such as continually re-stocking the beaches with dredged sand, would be cheaper and less intrusive, but might mean "sacrificing" some vulnerable parts of the coastline to the sea, he said.

It was too soon to say what the likely measures taken would be, or what the exact cost could rise to. "We are not ruling anything out and we are not ruling anything in."In the meantime, the council had an annual budget of $400,000 to maintain a "holding pattern" of remedial work in the area, but the beaches remained vulnerable to further erosion in another series of big storms, he said. "We are at the mercy of the sea, basically, in terms of what sort of storm events we get . . . "If we get a run of storms again this year, we could be back in a situation where we are getting a lot of erosion."

Otago Daily Times
By Chris Morris on Fri, 16 Jan 2009
Large volumes of sand may have returned to Dunedin's most popular beaches, but the picture being painted by two University of Otago students may soon show if it is here to stay.

The pair, Teresa Konlechner and Charlotte Kidd, are engaged in a GPS survey of St Clair, St Kilda and Middle beaches, which aims to build a three-dimensional digital model showing the shape of sand deposits on the beaches.

The work is the latest in a series of monthly surveys undertaken by students, contracted to the Dunedin City Council, since last year's severe storms caused more erosion problems, stripping sand from the area.

And it's surprisingly tough work - the students cover up to 22km each day while taking up to 4000 measurements in the hot sun, and have survived close encounters with curious locals including, earlier this week, an angry sea lion and her young pup.read the rest of the article here

The surveys and investigations scheduled for Ocean Beach in 2008 are now complete.

A full topographical survey has been completed, together with a bathymetric survey. The automated Cam-eras are running, and the pictures from them should be available for viewing though the NIWA website. Tenders closed on 12 December for Hydrodynamic Modelling, which is the study into such elements as wave refraction, sediment transport, and the effect of storms on the beach. This will be part of the further research into the dynamics of the beach in the New Year.

There has also been good progress with a series of Focus Group meetings with the key stakeholders, and these will continue into 2009.

As these studies progress and the information base grows, the Council will continue to liaise with the Otago Regional Council and the Department of Conservation to identify the best solution for the Ocean Beach.

As previously advised, the results of these studies will form part of a draft plan for the Ocean Beach which will be fully consulted with the community before it is formally considered by the Council.

Sand returning to St Clair beach..

Click photo to enlarge

Harvest time at Springfield Estate, Methven, where 23 binders were at work. - Otago Witness, 30.12.1908.

The Ocean Beach possesses remarkable characteristics, one of which is the undertow that makes it such a dangerous place to bathe from, and incidentally shifts so many tons of sand.

For this the tremendous inrush of billows to the Brighton Bight is mainly responsible.

The heaped-up waters find an easy egress by the narrow channel between White Island and Forbury Head, through which they pass at the rate of three miles an hour, thus causing a scour, which, though felt most severely at St. Clair, affects the whole foreshore right down to Lawyer's Head.

Were it not for the Ocean Beach Domain Board, a high spring tide, accompanied by a heavy gale from southerly, might result in a flooded St. Kilda.

A buffer has been found in the sand, swept to and fro by the sea and blown about in clouds by every wind.

Not a very stable material but with a little ingenuity and a great deal of perseverance the Domain Board has succeeded beyond expectations.

Scrub fences were erected to act as revetments, and the sand drifted and covered them, precisely as it blotted out the cities of the Pharaohs.

More fences were made and in turn covered, and the coarse, hardy sand grass, spreading and growing steadily, served further, as it were, to bind the compact.

• A strong, respectable-looking man came before the Benevolent Trustees yesterday, and, with the homely burr of Scotland, asked for aid.

He was 30 years of age, was married, and had been employed as a warehouse measurer in Glasgow.

Times were bad there, and he had scraped together enough money to pay his passage to New Zealand.

Having had experience of work in woollen mills, he applied at the Oamaru, Roslyn, and Mosgiel mills in vain.

On Monday he had walked in from Mosgiel, after having spent Sunday night in a stable, and was now literally starving.

He broke down then, and the big manly frame, weakened by hunger and the long, vain search for work and independence, was shaken with weary sobs.

The trustees promised him immediate help, and sent him off with a coin, cheered and grateful, to buy himself a good square meal. - ODT, 10.12.1908.

The two research studies that were commissioned recently are now well underway.

The first of these (the ecological study into fauna and flora) should be finished before the end of 2008, while the second research program (studies into historical, cultural and social elements) will take some months to complete.

The next steps in the latter studies include further consultation with the public and community groups. Letters are being sent to those groups now, inviting them to attend focus group meetings that are being arranged for late November/early December.

Discussion at these meetings should help identify key community aspirations for Ocean Beach, the foreshore and the Domain generally.

A full topographical survey of Ocean Beach was carried out in late October as part of the long term planning process for the Beach, and a bathymetric survey should get underway next month.

Separately, a 'Cam-Era' site has been identified, and two cameras have now been installed that are providing digital, time lapse photos of the beach and surf lines on the Ocean Beach.

The images provided by these cameras can be seen on the NIWA website (opens in a new window).

The very necessary research into the best solution for Ocean Beach is now well underway.

In the last few weeks studies have been commissioned into the historical, cultural, and social, elements that will help us understand how human intervention in the past might have affected the present situation. An ecological study of the area is also underway. Following discussions with NIWA (the National Institute of Weather and Atmospheric Research), a Cam-Era site has also been selected. This will provide time lapse digital images of the shoreline and surf zones to locate erosion 'hot spots'.

A full topographical survey of Ocean Beach will be carried out this month. Work is also underway to carry out a bathymetric (sea floor) survey off Ocean Beach later this year or early in 2009.

Most of the above projects should be completed by March 2009, and will help us to prepare a draft long term plan for the management of the Ocean Beach. As previously advised, there will be further public consultation with the public before the reviewed plan is presented to the Council for consideration. It is only at the end of that process that consents for the long term plan will be sought.

copied from stuff.co.nz
Six of the country's best surf breaks are just a short ride away from getting national park status. By PHIL HAMILTON - The Press | Friday, 26 September 2008

Under the Department of Conservation's proposed coastal policy, the six surf breaks of national significance Shipwrecks in Ahipara, Raglan, Stent Road in Taranaki, White Rock in the Wairarapa, Mangamaunu near Kaikoura and Papatowai in the Catlins would become protected surfing reserves.

However, the Christchurch City Council has opposed the move at hearings this week despite none of the breaks falling within its boundaries.

(pic: CORY SCOTT/The Press - NOT EXPENDABLE: Daniel Kereopa, of Raglan, drops into a giant wave at Papatowai in the Catlins, one of six breaks that could get national park status.)

Christchurch surfer and lawyer Jonathan McCarthy, who will speak at the hearings today on behalf of Surfing NZ and Surfers Environmental Advocacy, said it was essential the breaks were protected as other surf spots had been considered expendable in the past by local and central government.

He cited the Whangamata marina controversy and a famous wave in Mundaca, Spain that disappeared after dredging to deepen a harbour destroyed the sand bars.

"Literally overnight they destroyed one of the world's greatest waves," he said.

"That is the equivalent of climbers no longer being able to climb Aoraki or Everest."

He said surfing reserves were the only way of ensuring waves were protected, with both access by surfers and the swell guaranteed. It would prevent such activities as high density mussel farms or sand dredging that could ruin a wave or block the swell getting in.

McCarthy said New Zealand trailed Australia which had already established surfing reserves in New South Wales and Victoria.

Long-time Christchurch surfer, photographer and teacher Warren Hawke said it was an idea whose time had come.

"It's timely it happens now because of of the growth of things like mussel farming," he said.

"It's really important recreational users of the sea, their use is protected in the future.

"As they say, we are caretakers for our children."

The 55-year-old, who is the principal of Governors Bay School, first surfed Mangamaunu in 1969 and said it deserved to be included among the nation's six best spots.

"It's the classic Rincon-style (in California) point break, it's very well known, people can see it from the main road and tourists often stop there to watch the surfers."

Hawke said he would like to see Banks Peninsula's Hickory and Magnet bays also made surfing reserves.

Christchurch council healthy environment programme manager Jenny Ridgen said the council was not opposed to surf breaks but to the principle and approach of protecting one particular leisure activity.

"This is just one of many issues along with diving spots and fishing spots," she said.

"But it seems to have been given specific preference and our concern is it sets it above other things that are equally important to others."

Ridgen said the council believed the protection of nationally significant surf spots would come under another policy that covered the maintenance and enhancement of natural sites of particular value for outdoor recreation.

"We don't think it's good policy."

The hearings will conclude in mid-December and recommendations for the coastal policy will then be sent to the Minister of Conservation.

Spring is into gear, new things continue to pop up everywhere, and leave.
The sand is back on the beach in front of the sea wall, thanks to some recent east Swells.

Below, a little taste of the finished product.

The old white house next to the Esplanade Apartments was recently sold, and is being gutted out and converted into a cafe.
Developer is Stephen Chittock.. Pic to left was taken off the ODT website Source article here: on Fri, 1 Aug 2008.
"Development of the fourth of six potential licensed premises at the St Clair Esplanade is under way, with an estimated $400,000 conversion of a $1.3 million house into a bar and cafe making good progress.

The modest raised beachfront home, owned for decades by the Thomas family, was recently purchased for $1.3 million. Chittock has in recent years purchased nine of the 11 residential properties within the Esplanade block and owns the beachfront motels and Mansions apartment block. It will have seating for 80 indoors, 30 in a courtyard and 20 on a deck with a conservatory area in front of the existing facade. To be named Swell Cafe. "

I haven't reported much recently on the erosion management saga at Ocean Beach. Pretty much after the last public consultation rounds in April I realised there is nothing a single member of the public can do to make a difference to any outcome.
This was verified a few weeks back after I received the Emergency Response Teams minutes of their meeting over the public submissions made.
The deliberations recorded that the following be investigated and implemented:
* St Clair Sea Wall - information on the consent process, in particular why an offshore reef was rejected.
* Monitoring and analysis on the failure of the ramps and stairs.
* The formation of John Wilson memorial Drive.
* Items for funding
* Ongoing communication and work with the community, including the formation of a group of 'Key Stakeholders'
And that the information and Data gathering process outlined in the 13th November 2007 report from the Parks and Reserves team leader be confirmed and approved. View here pg 8
(Note, nothing new, nothing less)

What got my goat was; attached to the above meeting minutes was a short council written summary of some of the public submitters from April. In these what some said was twisted, misquoted and dotted with inaccuracies.
This affirmed that these submitters were not properly listened to or understood, which is both a disappointment and a negligent act of disrespect.

10th June 2008 Community Planning Committee meeting on Ocean Beach Public Feedback



Above & below: 10th of July, more sand replenishment, see article above, another $40,000 worth.