In the six years we have lived in Semaphore, the most contentious issue has easily been the carting of sand from the Semaphore and Largs Bay beaches. As we understand it, the sand further south is in constant motion northward, and beach communities further south, such as West Beach, are about to be washed away. The idea is to take sand from Semaphore and Largs, and put it back where it originally came from. We are not marine geologists, but we think that building more sand barriers, like the Malcolm Point breakwater, would be a much better idea. The domino theory we see on the horizon is build the sand pipeline with its pumping stations, therefor encouraging esplanade property owners to sell, which encourages council to rezone the esplanade for hi-rise condos... voila, instant "Gold Coast"...
As locals who frequent the beach, we can attest to both the disruption the machinery causes, and the enhanced erosion of the dunes. Many times the footpaths are closed due to this project.
Anything that lives in the sand, or in the dunes, is going to be disrupted, or destroyed. Sand carting itself causes this, but imagine what it will be like when they start constructing the "sand pipeline".
It is true that the entire beach, dunes, and foreshore, as we know it, is a man-made structure in constant flux since Europeans showed up and started fucking with it (1830s). Gone are the hundreds, possibly thousands, of plants and animals that thrived here before the white people showed up. The current population seems more worried about the loss of sand, then they do about the loss of emus. Disrupting the natural course of mother nature is always trouble. The picture below shows a fencepost at Semaphore dunes, before and after photos, taken a few years apart. The dune erosion since we have lived here (2016-2021) has been dramatic.
When sand is removed from Semaphore beach, and a king tide comes along, the erosion is much more dramatic than it would've been, had the sand not been removed.
The sand carting, and proposed pipeline build, is an issue (other than the removal of the waterslide), that has caused a lot of local protest. You would think people who claim to care about the beach and dunes, would care more about the fact that the thousands of dogs who come down here, and poo and pee all over the dunes and beach, and whose poo bags are discarded everywhere, represent a far greater threat to the environment than a sand pipeline.
But banning dogs, and cars, and jet-skis, and plastic poo bags, and everything else that is slowly destroying our environment, would be hard. But it would be right.
