Key points

  • If the risk from natural hazards increases over time and becomes intolerable, landowners might have to remove at-risk buildings and structures on their property.
  • If the property is large enough, a dwelling or development may be able to move to a safer area within the lot out of the intolerable risk area.
A flattened bushy area in front of a beach. Credit: NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure
Figure 1. Boomerang Beach. Credit: NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure

Beach erosion refers to the landward movement of the shoreline and/or a reduction in beach volume, usually due to storms. This process often occurs quickly, but most beaches recover over time.

However, there are sensitive open coast locations (SOCLs) where natural recovery is not possible and erosion may be permanent. As sea levels rise due to climate change, more open coast locations are likely to experience this kind of permanent erosion.

Boomerang Beach and Blueys Beach face coastal hazards and have lost sand and dunes due to erosion (figure 1 and 2). So far, these beaches have been able to recover.

A grassy slope at the edge of beach.
Figure 2. Blueys Beach. Credit: NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure

In these locations planning controls enable new development to build back better.

Due to the size of some allotments, landowners are able to redevelop landward within the same lot, relocating their dwellings out of the coastal hazard area into an area of tolerable risk. On allotments where the hazard will impact the whole site in future, new development is required to be built to a more resilient standard, so that buildings and communities may be able to withstand the anticipated impact of future beach erosion events.

Old Bar Beach is identified as a sensitive open coast location and has suffered beach erosion and shoreline recession over many years. Erosion events in 2008 and 2014, required the council to issue orders for some affected buildings to be demolished.

An area of vegetation above a beach. There is a sharp drop between the vegetation and the beach, indicating erosion. The vegetation is fenced on 2 sides. The ocean and bushland can be seen in the background.
Figure 3: Coastal erosion at Old Bar. Credit: Peter Davies

The ongoing loss of the beach and endangerment of existing structures in this location (figure 3) shows how tolerable or acceptable risk can become intolerable over time. To reflect this, Section D1.3 of the Greater Taree Development Control Plan states that it is ‘important to have the landowners accept that this risk could mean the eventual removal of these structures from the land’.