{"id":260114,"date":"2025-07-12T23:04:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T23:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/260114\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T23:04:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T23:04:22","slug":"fears-king-tide-could-inundate-was-lancelin-as-council-sounds-alarm-on-coastal-erosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/260114\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears king tide could inundate WA’s Lancelin as council sounds alarm on coastal erosion"},"content":{"rendered":"

An expert says urgent action is needed to protect a small West Australian fishing town at risk of inundation from looming king tides.<\/p>\n

Lancelin, 125 kilometres north of Perth, is home to fewer than 1,000 people, but its picturesque sand dunes and beaches attract thousands of tourists each year.<\/p>\n

But while the town’s inland dunes are famous for four-wheel driving and sand boarding, residents say the dunes closer to the coast have been steadily eroded by the ocean.<\/p>\n

With the town itself sitting below sea level, locals are concerned the combination of winter weather and forecast high tide could put their homes and businesses at risk.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Glen Trebilcock purchased the Lancelin Sands Hotel with hopes to be in Lancelin for the rest of his life. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chloe Henville\/Piper Duffy)<\/p>\n

Glenn Trebilcock moved to Lancelin just over two years ago, hoping to spend the rest of his life running the beachfront Sands Hotel.<\/p>\n

Mr Trebilcock said he had lost 25 to 30 metres of beachfront to erosion since his arrival.<\/p>\n

“Everyone knows that the ocean’s very cyclic, but not at this ferocity and rapid erosion rate,” Mr Trebilcock said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Coastal experts have told the Shire of Gingin that buildings like the Lancelin Sands Hotel are at risk of inundation.\u00a0 (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Piper Duffy)<\/p>\n

Anxious about his business, Mr Trebilcock started a petition calling on the government for assistance.<\/p>\n

Within 24 hours, more than 200 people had signed in support.<\/p>\n

“It’s my livelihood, it’s my business, home and community,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got big winter weather on the way \u2026 if [the erosion] continues at this rate, then I’m truly worried for everyone.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Gary Screaigh says he is happy to watch nature take its course. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Piper Duffy)<\/p>\n

Gary Screaigh has owned the Lancelin North End Caravan Park for 42 years and said he noticed the ocean getting more turbulent.<\/p>\n

“You can nearly surf on the beach here at times, whereas before the ocean’s always been very placid,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Gary Screaigh says tides have been more “vicious” in recent years. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Piper Duffy)<\/p>\n

But Mr Screaigh said he was not worried about the impact erosion might have on him.<\/p>\n

“I suppose it would be different if I was just beginning something, but I’m towards the end of my life,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Whatever Mother Nature does, I’ll just go along with it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Linda Balcombe worries about what could happen if mitigation isn’t put in place by August. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Piper Duffy)<\/p>\n

Town’s future under threat<\/p>\n

Gingin shire president Linda Balcombe said damage to Lancelin’s coastal barrier had become worse.<\/p>\n

“We’ve lost some shire infrastructure, which is in front of the hotel and it’s moved at quite an aggressive rate,” she said.<\/p>\n

The council has engaged coastal engineers and the Department of Transport for advice.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A cement footpath at the front of the Lancelin Sands Hotel has crumbled into the ocean. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Piper Duffy)<\/p>\n

Ms Balcombe said the engineers warned her of a predicted king tide, expected in August, which could pose serious risk to the whole town.<\/p>\n

Advice included the construction of a fresh dune at a 45-degree angle to the hotel and caravan park.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology said while it was not a scientific term, a king tide described a “remarkably high tide”.<\/p>\n

A BOM spokesperson said its tide predictions forecast some larger tides at Lancelin during August, but not the largest of the year.<\/p>\n

“If the king tide comes and we haven’t got anything in place, we’re not sure what damage could happen,” Ms Balcombe said.<\/p>\n

“That could create inundation into the town and especially the caravan park.<\/p>\n

“It would also be devastating for the hotel \u2026 I’d hate to think it would be in danger of being closed down.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

What’s left of the footpath in front of the Sands Hotel, taken from a drone view showing coastal erosion damage. (Supplied: Kaeto Hoffman\/DroneSphereAU)<\/p>\n

Funding needed<\/p>\n

The scope of works was expected to cost the shire $150,000, but Ms Balcombe said red tape around government funding had left them in the lurch.<\/p>\n

“We don’t have a big pot of money to protect our whole shire,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Balcombe said.\"A<\/p>\n

Linda Balcombe is worried about what will happen to the town without preventative measures. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Piper Duffy)<\/p>\n

Ms Balcombe said she had yet to receive a response from WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti.<\/p>\n

In the state parliament last week, Midwest MP Shane Love, who represents Lancelin, asked Ms Saffioti to state her position on redirecting the funding.<\/p>\n

Ms Saffioti confirmed Ms Balcombe’s letter had been received and was “working to provide an answer” in relation to the switching of the funds.<\/p>\n

Asked if there was any provision for additional funding in cases like Lancelin, Ms Saffioti referenced disaster relief funding where shires could apply after they lost infrastructure to natural disasters.<\/p>\n

“But Lancelin is not yet flooded,” Mr Love said.<\/p>\n

“If you wanted to prevent it from becoming a disaster, surely it would be wise to be able to respond quickly.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"portrait<\/p>\n

Charitha Pattiaratchi says erosion problems are going to get worse in the coming decades. (ABC News: Claire Moodie)<\/p>\n

‘Band-aid’ solution<\/p>\n

Coastal oceanography professor Charitha Pattiaratchi said a sand dune would be a temporary fix, because Lancelin was built on an eroding coastline.<\/p>\n

“It’s a thorny problem because to save our coast is going to cost a lot of money,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In some places, we actually have to make the decision that this is not cost-effective to try to save this part of the beach and we have to let the natural process take over.<\/p>\n

“So that’s the question, what do we save and what do we let go?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An expert says urgent action is needed to protect a small West Australian fishing town at risk of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[1425,99700,93751,728,5036,1234,24847,99699,5642,16007,1687,64807,5039,2846,98248,70,16,15,6507],"class_list":{"0":"post-260114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-beach","9":"tag-caravan","10":"tag-coastal-erosion","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-funding","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-hotel","15":"tag-lancelin","16":"tag-management","17":"tag-ocean","18":"tag-park","19":"tag-petition","20":"tag-regional","21":"tag-risk","22":"tag-sand","23":"tag-science","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-water"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114842767787105477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}