Australians 'could be forced to evacuate seaside homes'

Anne Barrowclough in Sydney

Australia’s fabled beachside life of sea, surf and sundowners overlooking the ocean is under threat from rising sea levels. Those living in coastal areas most at risk could be ordered out of their homes for their own safety, while construction in other sensitive seaside areas may be banned.
A government report on climate change says that urgent action is needed to protect thousands of miles of coastline and to maintain an Australian way of life.
The issue is already coming to a head in several areas. At Byron Bay, a popular resort on the northern New South Wales coast, owners of luxury homes are fighting council plans to force the demolition of properties under threat from erosion.
The concentration of people and infrastructure on the coast makes the country “particularly vulnerable to the coastal erosion and inundation that will accompany increases in sea level”, according to the report from the bipartisan Lower House Environment Committee. It notes that for each 1cm rise in sea level, the shoreline could be pushed back by 1m.

Sea levels are expected to rise up to 80cm (32ins) globally this century, according to forecasts by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, posing a significant threat to coastlines. While most Australian states accept these forecasts, the New South Wales state government commissioned a separate report from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and is projecting a global sea level rise closer to one metre.
Australia’s principal cities are all in coastal areas and 80 per cent of Australians live near the sea, with about 711,000 homes within 3km (2 miles) of the ocean. The committee,which spent 18 months examining the impact of climate change on the country’s coastal areas, recommends that authorities consider “the possibility of a government instrument that prohibits continued occupation of the land, or future building due to sea hazard”.
Alan Stokes, from the National Seachange Taskforce, which represents local councils in coastal areas, said that the committee’s recommendations should be treated as a blueprint for the future. “There are areas around the coast that are vulnerable to such an extent that there can be no guarantee that people can live there in the future in a sense of security,” said Mr Stokes. “What we are looking at is the prospect of losing those coastal attributes that people find so attractive.”
In Byron Bay, the Byron Shire Council, which is controlled by the Green Party, published a planning policy recently advocating “planned retreat”, allowing natural erosion of the coastline, to the extent of preventing homeowners from building rock defences to protect their property from rising sea levels. Should the council succeed in enforcing this law any house under threat of erosion would be demolished.
Several residents have already been stopped from building walls to protect beachfront homes from storm surges but after mounting a legal battle they hope for a reprieve after the state government announced its own objections to the council’s move.
Sydney’s northern beaches have also proven vulnerable, with insurance firms refusing to cover some beachfront homes. The situation at Byron Bay has led to a call for greater clarification of the rights of property owners to protect homes from climate change.
The report also includes recommendations for a national coastline plan, greater co-operation between different authorities, and a revised building code to cope with storm surges and soil erosion.