Western Australia small-town pub at risk of washing away
Updated . First published
A Western Australia pub owner is desperately trying to save his business from literally being washed away.
The Lancelin Sands Hotel, located 125km north of Perth, is facing severe coastal erosion, with 50 metres of coastline being eroded in the past 15 months.
The coastline along Lancelin Sands Hotel is rapidly eroding. 9News
“I’m extremely concerned, last year we lost pretty close to about 36, 37 metres and so far, this year, we’re tipping the scales at 14 metres,” Lancelin Sands Hotel owner, Glenn Trebilock, told Today.
“There’s not much left and on the right side, the northern end of the property, we’re down to probably about three 3.5 metres, then the southern end of the property, we’re on about six or seven.
“So yeah, things are getting extremely, extremely close and extremely tight.”
After a storm last week, certain parts of the coastline got down to 1.5 metres - this was just 15 metres away from the Lancelin Sands Hotel.
Glenn Trebilcock is worried his venue will be destroyed due to coastal erosion. Today
Glenn said thankfully the shire rallied together for short-term emergency works, but a longer-term approach is needed.
But he said the erosion is taking its toll on local businesses and the community and he has lost around five weddings and other smaller conferences from his calendar this year.
“There’s been 12 months warning on this, especially in this part of Lancelin, prior to that, five years earlier, down in Grace Darling Park, there was also some serious, serious erosion,” he said.
“But sand re-nourishment is not the answer, it needs more of a long term engineered approach to turn around and salvage the town.
“We’ve been petitioning the government last year and it just seems to be falling on deaf ears - obviously erosion happens all the way around the country, all around the globe, but it just seems that our little piece of paradise seems to be overlooked and forgotten about.”
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