The Silverleaves Conservation Association wrote to each of the seven candidates for the Island Ward asking them to respond to four questions.

The questions were:

1. What do you believe are Council’s responsibility and obligations in relation to the Silverleaves foreshore erosion?
2. Have you read the Silverleaves Coastal Processes Study released by DEECA in September? What do you think are the most important areas to address?
3. Do you think the Council’s Silverleaves foreshore management has been adequate up to this point?  What has been done well and what needs to be rectified?
4. If elected, what are your proposed actions in relation to the Silverleaves emergency response and longer-term foreshore management?

We received answers from four of the seven candidates (in order of receipt): John Trigt, David Rooks, Tim O'Brien and Tracey Bell. 

CANDIDATE RESPONSES

John Trigt
1. What do you believe are Council’s responsibility and obligations in relation to the Silverleaves foreshore erosion?
Residents of Silverleaves I am going to be honest with you. I am aware of the erosion problems in Silverleaves and other foreshore areas of the Bass Coast Shire. Sand erosion is a natural occurrence and unfortunately we cannot control nature. Having said that there are ways to stop erosion and inundation. I am aware of rock walls or dykes being used, but they are an expensive solution.
If elected I will collaborate with my fellow councillors to press both State and Federal Governments to use their technical expertise to solve this issue and to provide grants to conduct the works. Bass
Coast council have neither the skills nor cash to carry out this work.

2. Have you read the Silverleaves Coastal Processes Study released by DEECA in September? What do you think are the most important areas to address?
Yes, I have read both documents released by DEECA in September. I do not have the experience to determine which is the most important area to address.

3. Do you think the Council’s Silverleaves foreshore management has been adequate up to this point? What has been done well and what needs to be rectified?
I am not able to comment on the Council’s management of the Silverleaves foreshore.

4. If elected, what are your proposed actions in relation to the Silverleaves emergency response and longer-term foreshore management?
I am unable to fore shadow my action as both DEECA documents are light on proposed action and costngs. I am aware that Mr Ken Haily of Silverleave was successful in lobbying both Federal and
State governments for grants.
My final comment is “have the residents of Silverleaves considered a Special Charge Scheme similar to the roads and drainage scheme”?

David Rooks
1. What do you believe are Council’s responsibility and obligations in relation to the Silverleaves foreshore erosion?

• Listen and best respond to community needs and wishes
• Advocate for support from the State and Federal Government
• Work with State and Federal in finding solutions to the issues
• Keep the community informed of the situation and any proposed work (both planning and physical) to be undertaken.
• Encourage the community to get involved in the community consultation opportunities.

2. Have you read the Silverleaves Coastal Processes Study released by DEECA in September? What do you think are the most important areas to address?
Yes. Would also recommend watching the supporting video:

Important issues are:

• Continue to put pressure on the State Government to deliver on the current process, Planning for Coastal Adapting Pathways at Silverleaves.
• To continue work on the short term recommendations listed from the Silverleaves Coastal Processes Study, including adaption planning for coastline and inundation, ongoing maintenance and nourishment to the groyne fields.
• Advocate for work on the medium to long term recommendations.

3. Do you think the Council’s Silverleaves foreshore management has been adequate up to this point? What has been done well and what needs to be rectified?

• Council has advocated for support from DEECA.
• Partnered with DEECA to complete sand nourishment work in August 2023.
• Council has worked alongside the State Government on the Silverleaves Coastal Processes Study.
• A stronger acknowledgement by the state for support in this area needs to happen.

4. If elected, what are your proposed actions in relation to the Silverleaves emergency response and longer-term foreshore management?

• Stay well informed of the situation.
• Continue to support the community.

Tim O’Brien
1. What do you believe are Council’s responsibility and obligations in relation to the Silverleaves foreshore erosion?
My overarching view is that the situation that Silverleaves residents find themselves in - their properties and that beautiful shoreline now under serious threat - should NEVER have been allowed
get to this point. While DEECA is the responsible authority for shorelines and coastal impacts through its Marine and Coastal Management arm, the planning and decision pathway outlined in the Marine and Coastal Policy 2020 identifies Council's role in the response to coastal hazards. In effect, long term strategic planning as well as the grants program and the projects DEECA undertakes through its Marine and Coastal Management arm are driven in part by local councils (as "decision makers" and "collaborators"). It is Council that keeps the authority on the hook while also being
collaboratively involved in works and mitigation.

As regards Silverleaves and the encroachment now threatening properties and shoreline habitat, the evident need for urgency and forward-reaching solutions has been obvious for more than a decade. The response from Council (and DEECA, formerly DELWP) has been to seek band-aid solutions, to address problems in isolation - or so it would seem: repairing a piece of wall here, replacing a groyne there - rather than tackling all of the interrelated factors as one problem requiring a solution. On this, because of the inevitable cost involved, Council has not been driven by the urgency that that shoreline encroachment now demands.

The obligation on Council here is clear. It is no different and no less than the obligation of councils and government to citizens whose houses sit in river flood plains. That it has historically approved
and continues to approve the building of residences behind the 'East Cowes' shoreline makes that obligation to Silverleaves residents clear - it must protect what it has allowed, it must protect those
properties there.

To have watched the extent of the gouging of that shoreline at the end of the revetment wall, the collapse of so many trees, the rapid encroachment on properties and the loss of such a swathe of
coastal habitat should have galvanised Council to more action than we've seen to date.

2. Have you read the Silverleaves Coastal Processes Study released by DEECA in September? What do you think are the most important areas to address?
Yes, I have studied it closely. While I recognise that time is of the essence, this study has - in my view - simply provided a restatement of the matter to be resolved, with little in the way of
recommendations as to the next steps. I have serious doubts as to the suitability of the consultants engaged, FSC Range, to investigate, report, and recommend solutions to the very complex forces at work driving the shoreline loss. The credentials of FSC Range indicate a stronger leaning to civil construction solutions than the kind of broad coastal experience - the dynamics of shorelines, of wave action and of shoreline flows - required here. In its own words: “We specialise in the transport, tourism, recrea9on, international development, energy and community infrastructure sectors.”

This study - surely, given the shoreline and asset risk (dozens upon dozens of homes) - should have been in the hands of a company with very deep project experience and a profound understanding and track record in coastal erosion and mitigation solutions. What I saw at that presentation and read in the Report is more like a situational analysis, a review of the literature (previous studies and historical photos etc.), a somewhat meandering assessment of the causal factors at work and equally vague key recommendations to address them (in the main, the recommendations are barely recommendations and simply restate the matter to be addressed).

We need VERY experienced expert analysis of the complex forces at work impacting that Silverleaves shoreline, and, equally, a company experienced in SOLUTIONS, who has a track record of dealing successfully with coastal erosion (not a company that added coastal erosion processes to its portfolio yesterday). Are Silverleaves residents confident that the future of their homes and community rest in the recommendations and oversight of a very young company doing its first major gig in coastal erosion?

As for the most important areas to address, it is clear (and this, the Study identifies) that the 'solutions' applied to date have contributed to the shoreline loss. The revetment wall - ending where
it does, and creating a swirling eddy at its easternmost point - is a significant contributor to the gouging of the coastline there. It is also clear that the revetment wall is doing what revetment walls
do: its hard reflective surfaces reflect the energy of waves in a high sea upward (rather than absorbing the energy as would a vegetated sand bank), which then gather energy as they fall,
gouging sand from the base of the wall as the energised water retreats. So, what to do here? Run the wall all the way to where the sand accretion is occurring? Might it not just repeat the gouging of the coastline there?

Silverleaves residents should rightly expect that the next steps are the right ones. For that we need an urgent re-analysis, solid recommendations and action by the State Government and Council. This will cost; but the risk to one of Victoria's most beautiful and unique north-facing coastlines demands this action.

3. Do you think the Council’s Silverleaves foreshore management has been adequate up to this point? What has been done well and what needs to be rectified?
Can I see anything that has been done well? Hmm, what I see in terms of Council's foreshore management is decades of half-measures and failed measures. As mentioned, my view is that there
has not been nearly enough prior- nor post-analysis investigation of the construction solutions (groynes, revetment wall) that have been in place for decades. Also, I think that Council historically
has been remiss in not being more active in preventing residents 'making their own paths' through fragile vegetation to the beach, and, in so doing, fatally compromising the integrity of the dunes.

Vegetation management (the oversight by Council officers) generally has been poor, particularly with the removal of canopies of mature trees, and, in some instances, of whole trees, notwithstanding
some publicised bylaws action and fines for perpetrators. I also note that Silverleaves residents are very proud of their special place, of the habitat provided by that strip of coastal forest and of the environment, the mature trees and the appeal of their streetscapes. This can be protected; we, that is Council, must get the State Government more engaged, must get DEECA more engaged, and must itself get more engaged.

4. If elected, what are your proposed actions in relation to the Silverleaves emergency response and longer-term foreshore management?
I think I have answered that with my previous responses. Suffice to say, if elected, I will not let Silverleaves residents down. I will treat this with the urgency and importance it demands. I will
ensure that this is and remains a 'front of mind issue' for Council. I will also use my best endeavours to ensure that Council keeps the heat on the State Government and DEECA to get this resolved.

Most important, I feel, is that Council and the Department find and appoint a company with deep experience in complex coastal flows and shoreline environmental management and solutions, and
put them to work. The time is 'now'.

Tracey Bell
1. What do you believe are Council’s responsibility and obligations in relation to the Silverleaves foreshore erosion?
Coastline is crown land and therefore council is not responsible for it in the same way as it is responsible for its own assets. However, the Council has been appointed to manage the coastline on
behalf of the government which means it is responsible for the day-to-day management, with state government funding to carry out the necessary activity. However, new works are the responsibility
of DEECA. It is Council’s responsibility to report to the government that major urgent works are needed and to continue to push for action to ensure the beach is safe.

2. Have you read the Silverleaves Coastal Processes Study released by DEECA in September? What do you think are the most important areas to address?
Yes and I attended the forum at Berninneit. The revetment wall was clearly a short-sighted fix to a problem and has caused the accelerated erosion at Silverleaves. The blue-stone walls west of the
revetment wall break up the waves rather than pushing the water along and so would possibly been a better solution that the revetment. The groynes don’t seem to be as effective nowadays as it seems the sand is being carried along the coastline further out than the groynes reach. There needs to be an immediate short-term measure taken to prevent another eight metres of erosion in the next 12 months, as is the current rate. Longer-term measures need to ensure the problem isn’t once again simply pushed further east as it will then run into the Rhyll wetlands.

3. Do you think the Council’s Silverleaves foreshore management has been adequate up to this point? What has been done well and what needs to be rectified?
No, clearly it hasn’t been adequate because we are now in some sort of emergency situation with the beach closed.

The council officers have done well by coming to investigate and they are aware of the issue and no doubt trying their best. The Coastal Processes Study is excellent and the presentation given by the consultants at the forum explained very well how all the forces – both natural and manmade – have combined to cause this problem. With that depth of understanding, we can now move forward with solutions that will not cause more damage.

On the flipside, there was no BSC executive representation at the forum to hear the community’s concerns. Action has been a long time coming and still feels a long way off. I got a sense there is
reticence between DEECA and council to take any short-term action to mitigate the current rate of erosion.

4. If elected, what are your proposed actions in relation to the Silverleaves emergency response and longer-term foreshore management?
There needs to be immediate rectification work on the revetment wall, possibly using a stone wall that dissipates the waves. I’m not an engineer, so I would definitely take advice from experts on the
appropriate actions to take both short- and long-term. But the time for action is long overdue. I know they are now in a period of reviewing the community feedback and pulling together
recommendations, so I would like to see the pressure continue to be put on DEECA and the state government to move forward with recommendations and implementation. At the forum, Jordan
Crugnale said that once they identified what was needed for erosion at Inverloch they were “pretty quick” to secure federal funding. That time frame wasn’t clarified any further, but I should hope that
she is already sending messages that funding will be required imminently.