Hayley Primmer & Seth Carter, Yanchep News Online

The Shire of Gingin held a special meeting to discuss urgent business relating to coastal erosion on parts of the Lancelin foreshore this evening.

Last year, as well as April of this year, $150,000 of emergency funding was spent on sand renourishment projects, only for it to be washed away within the span of a few months leaving some in Lancelin worried their livelihoods will not make it through the storms to see summer.

Residents are calling for a different solution to the problem, but unfortunately, it is not that simple.

Shire of Gingin President Linda Balcombe said the sand renourishment plan was the preferred solution from the Department of Transport and with the funds raised they were able to save some infrastructure last year.

Councillor Balcombe said the erosion however, had eaten away at the sand “quicker than we would have hoped.”

Sand renourishment works are a temporary solution and extremely costly so she is interested in exploring other options but said the shire needed support from the state or federal government to progress.

“It definitely needs to be investigated on how we can protect that area,’’ she said.

“This isn’t a long-term solution, but we’re a very small shire.

“We’re not Wanneroo or Joondalup and we don’t have the money that some of the biggest shires have.”

The Nationals WA leader and Mid West MLA Shane Love has been advocating for Lancelin residents and business owners including Glen Trebilcock, who said he had recently spent thousands of dollars of his own money fighting the erosion threatening Lancelin Sands Hotel.

Mr Love said not a single Labor minister or member of Parliament had been to see the urgency of the situation in Lancelin.

He said the government needed to start taking the issue seriously.

“We’ve had years of sand being dumped in the ocean to try and ameliorate the flows,’’ he said.

“We don’t have a good idea of what’s going on, because if the government did, I’m sure a plan could be announced.”

UWA coastal engineering lecturer Arnold van Rooijen said there were multiple possibilities to help ease the erosion, but ultimately all the solutions required consistent monitoring and funds.

“I think the sand renourishment was put there to buy some time,’’ Dr van Rooijen said.

“We don’t expect to put the sand there and it will just sit there for 10 years and be fine.

“It’s a conscious choice to put the sand there instead of something else.”

The owners of Lancelin Sands hotel have started a Go Fund Me with a goal of $150,000 to pay for an emergency sea wall to be built.

As of Monday more than $42,000 had been donated.

A sea wall is a potential solution to increase longevity of Lancelin’s coastline, but Dr van Rooijen said it isn’t that simple as typically, sea walls were built to protect infrastructure, rather than the beach itself.

“Over time you’d lose the beach, or you would have to come back and renourish anyway to keep the beach there,’’ he said.

“You’d also have to maintain the sea wall itself as the waves will start to erode in front of the structure.”

“Whatever structure you put there it’s going to affect the adjacent coastline.

“I think for Lancelin you would have to put a sea wall along the entire coastline because if you stop the erosion there it’s probably going to make it worse somewhere else.”

Dr van Rooijen said it could be a possible choice to protect the coastline’s infrastructure long-term but it would be extremely expensive to maintain.

Mr Love said it was an increasingly worrying situation, but it was unsustainable to expect Lancelin and the Shire of Gingin to bear the cost alone.

“The community doesn’t have the resources to bite this all on their own.”

This project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund
This article appeared on Yanchep News Online on 30 June 2026.