Rachel Hagan, Yorke Peninsula Country Times
Sandbags intended to give Foul Bay’s Mud Alley another decade of protection were destroyed in recent storms, and now residents are taking matters into their own hands with plans for a permanent rock wall.
Only three months ago, Yorke Peninsula Council completed emergency sandbagging to its existing sandbags, as a temporary solution to protect properties in severe weather events.
However, since the destructive May 26 storm, the wall of sandbags has been battered, and now there is little left of the seawall to shield residents.
With more bad weather expected today, residents are frantically preparing to safeguard their properties for the second time in less than a month.
Mud Alley Residents Association sub-committee chair Grant Eckert said there was no doubt the new sandbags had saved properties, but it was clear a permanent solution was urgently needed.
“The temporary seawall needs to be replaced with a permanent rock wall and that is what we are looking at doing now,” Mr Eckert said.
YPC had previously investigated a more permanent future structure, but this was only considered for the half of Mud Alley where flooding had already occurred.
The May storms, however, revealed all 23 properties on Mud Alley were now at risk with recent floodwaters penetrating the whole street.
“I think we need to increase the rock wall to protect the entire length of Mud Alley because the damage has been pretty significant,” Mr Eckert said.
To help deliver a long-term fix, MARA is offering to pay for and lead the new project, with assistance from YPC.
“Council are great, but a motivated community will get the job done quickly,” Mr Eckert said.
Last week, residents took their first step with YPC elected member Mick O’Connell visiting Foul Bay. This week they will meet with the Chinaman Wells Shack Owners Association to learn how they built their own seawall.
“We don’t want to be that squeaky wheel that asks the council to fix it and says it’s your problem,” Mr Eckert said.
“We know we are just one community, so we’re not naive enough to expect council to come in with a project like Chinaman Wells — that was well over $700,000. It’s not an insignificant amount of money.”
In deep water
Since 2018, Rob Bushell and his partner Ann have planted vegetation in front of their property, but their plans to extend flora along the entire beach have now been completely washed away.
The plants were intended to stabilise the soil and help restore a natural barrier to protect against future erosion.
Mr Bushell said it was heartbreaking to see all their work destroyed in a single day, but he knew the plants stood little chance against waves several metres high crashing over them.
“I thought the new sandbags would give us 10 years, based on how quickly erosion happened previously,” he said.
“And I thought, once the plants were growing, they’d hold back the soil a bit longer and we’d have more time to get the wall done.
“But if those bags weren’t there, these shacks would all be gone.”
The new sandbags were installed in February, and the soil behind them was added only a month ago.
Despite this extra protection, Mr Bushell’s home was still surrounded by water during the May storm.
When the storm hit, Mr Bushell said he was using his bobcat — which has since been destroyed — to protect other properties on the street.
“It all happened within about 10 minutes,” he said.
In addition to losing his bobcat, Mr Bushell has missed almost a month of work, with the storm clean-up taking about three weeks.
Chris Goodchild lives at the opposite end of Mud Alley and said this was the first time his property had ever flooded.
Thinking his home was safe, he went down the street to help Mr Bushell instead.
“It was scary because we never thought we’d get flooded,” Mr Goodchild said.
“For 30 years I’ve lived here and it’s come up the front a few times — just a trickle — but this just poured in, and for an hour and a half it kept filling up.
This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 24 June 2025.
