The Big Blow – What happened at the beaches?

Lots of wind and water action yesterday!
Mostly the beaches are still there.
But plainly, coastal erosion is not going away as a regular phenomenon any time soon.
Some remedial work no doubt for City of Freo workers here and there.
And no doubt also some hard thinking for all concerned about the future of Port Beach and the adjacent built facilities, including bar and restaurant right on the edge of the dunes.
We discovered a good number of other voyeurs at the beaches late yesterday (although to be fair to the hardy Shipping News people, we were there getting the scoop for our readers), as front after front came through and the beaches seemed to keep disappearing before our eyes.
Great sprays of water and foam everywhere from the wild, gusty westerlies.
Even a few surfers defying the odds, and the warnings!
Our main investigation was at Port Beach to see what was left of the ‘seawall’ after all the action. We’d been there a few days earlier just so we could do the before and after. Here’s our pictures. It’s still there, but looks awfully precarious.
Then we took in the Dog Beach at South Beach near the Sailing Club. It really seems to have been knocked about. No before and after required here. You can see just how much the action has eaten into the sand dunes.
So much action that, in one of the pictures, you’ll spot a guy with his metal detector hard at work. A good example of ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’! We wonder how many sets of car keys he came up with? He might do well to advertise For Sale items on Freo Massive!
Bathers Beach seems to have fared the best. As our pictures show, the tide made it all the way up to the various structures, for example near where you might, in summer, enjoy your coffee and cake down the steps on the sand in front of Bathers Beachhouse. It otherwise all seems good.