Break walls feared dangerous

Richard Payne

Lives could be lost along the Lake Illawarra break walls unless drastic reconstruction work is undertaken to prevent the onset of large crevasses within the framework according to one Warilla resident.

With holes beginning to appear throughout the rockwork in both sides of the break wall, renowned Warilla CoastCare stalwart George Lane has expressed concerns that young lives could be lost unless people are excluded from walking out along the walls.

“Large rocks should never have been placed straight onto the sand alongside the lake entrance,” Mr Lane said.

“Large swells and shifting sands have significantly moved the walls, creating holes in the rockwork large enough for a person to fall into.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous to place the rocks straight onto the sand and not expect them to move,” he said.

“These holes are becoming bigger every day and the way things are going, the break walls have become a major trap.”

Mr Lane, who has lived in the area for 42 years, said he had heard stories of people falling through.

“It’s only a matter of time before someone disappears. They have to close the walls straight away before something worse happens.”

Extremely critical of the Lake Illawarra Authority’s (LIA) handling of the entrance opening Mr Lane said the lake’s mouth had shrunk significantly saying he believed the whole entrance would be shut within two months.

Mr Lane accused the LIA of “ballsing the whole entrance opening process up”.

“Sand that was left along the edge of the northern break wall has now been blown into the mouth of the lake and joined up with the man made ‘tern island’ creating a huge sandbar across the entrance.

“The mouth has become so shallow it is possible for people to walk across at low tide.

“The LIA should have saved some of the money they spent on creating the break walls and instead employed a full time dredge to be used into the entrance,” he said.

“The Lake Illawarra Authority have wasted that much money on a system that just doesn’t work.

“The amount of sand that has come back into the entrance is ridiculous. If they had forgotten about the break wall and instead placed a full time dredge in here none of this would have happened.”

Refuting the claims made by Mr Lane, LIA Chairman Doug Prosser said the movement of sand was to be expected, saying the first decent flood the lake received would see sand taken a lot further down the waterway.

“At the moment we are just playing it safe and keeping an eye on how things progress throughout the entrance,” he said.

“We are very happy with the way the break walls have reacted to some very strong cyclonic swells already.

“Basically everything that has happened so far is to be expected.”