Climate Change Madness

Thinking about a sea change when you retire? If you do, you might reconsider a front row, uninterrupted view of the ocean and opt for something a little further away. In the 1970s, Russel and Annabelle Secombe bought a modest, single-level brick home at Lake Cathie, a small town on the NSW mid-north coast.


It’s a beautiful place to live, just across from the ocean but the couple, now in their 80’s are undergoing a lot of stress from their local council. Port Macquarie Hastings Council have put a study on their website recommending forced “planned retreat” for owners of 17 houses on Illaroo Road because they will be vulnerable to sea level rises due to climate change by the end of the century.


Surely this is local government gone mad. There are no current threats to the properties involved, Illaroo Road is about 7 metres above mean sea level so there’s no danger of flooding but Council won’t be moved, as far as they are concerned, the sea is going to rise - a scenario which is unchallenged and sanctioned as fact. And now the properties involved are unsellable.



The IPCC has a lot to answer for because that’s what concil’s concerns are based on. The Secombes and their neighbours would have to sell their houses to the council and move out. "We don't want to shift, no way," Mr Secombe said yesterday.


Illaroo Road residents Kylie Outtrim, a nurse and her husband bought their two-storey brick house five years ago, intending to update and renovate for their retirement but shortly after, council announced that no renovations or improvements were allowed.


Long-term locals such as the Secombes point out that while erosion can be a problem, it has been a natural ebb and flow over the decades. "A few years ago there was an eight-or ten-foot cliff on the other side of the road, then three months on, it was back to a full beach," Mr Secombe said.


The council's head of development and environment services, Matt Rogers, yesterday agreed that this was the case and that "the erosion was much worse a few years ago than it is today". He also agreed that since the road is about 7m above mean sea level, there's no danger of flooding.


The property owners say they are happy to take the risk of climate change and resent the council imposing a solution on them that will cost them dearly.


It would cost the council $10.5 million to buy the 17 houses involved but there is another alternative called a revetment that would cost $3 million. The report stated it as a ”technically feasible optiion” that would “provide certifiable protection from erosion risks.” Naturally, locals plan to fight the SMEC proposal and urge council to adopt the revetment option.


Interesting to note that a new council will be elected in September.