Sydney Beaches Research Articles

The failure of NSW coastal management reform

In New South Wales (NSW), Australia, awareness of coastal erosion and shoreline recession had its genesis in the late 1920s when storms damaged houses at Collaroy one of Sydney’s northern beaches (Figure 1). At about the same time the Coogee “Fun” Pier, located on a southern Sydney beach and built between 1924 and 1928, was so damaged by wave attack that the remains had to be removed in 1934. Again in 1945 a new seawall at Cronulla, another southern Sydney beach, was damaged beyond repair and at the same time more houses were lost at Collaroy. This was followed in 1967, 1974, and 1978 by major erosion events that threatened both houses and high-rise buildings at Collaroy, resulted in the loss of houses at Bilgola, a northern Sydney beach and in 1978 the loss of houses at Wamberal, 46 km north of Sydney Harbour (Table 1). Unlike the United States of America (USA) where coastal management comes under both federal and state jurisdictions, in Australia it is the province of the governments of each of the states. The federal government does provide some aspirational guidance, but not significant legislative or financial support. There is also no equivalent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide project delivery services. In Australia, the states devolve delivery down to local councils through Acts of Parliament and formal policies that can also have legislative force. However, the failure of the State of NSW to provide all the legislative tools necessary to effectively manage coastal matters at a local council level results in coastal management being abdicated rather than delegated by the state, particularly in relation to private development.

Undrained response of Sydney sand under non-reversal cyclic loading

Stress history and loading path can significantly influence the cyclic response of sands. It is well known that cyclic behaviour under non-symmetrical cycling is generally different from that under symmetrical loading around zero deviator stress. Anisotropic consolidation prior to cycling in triaxial apparatus changes the behaviour by exerting an initial static shear stress on critical planes. The present paper reports the results from a number of cyclic triaxial tests on anisotropically consolidated samples of Sydney beach sand. The samples are reconstituted in the laboratory and subjected to non-reversal cycling in compression only loading under undrained conditions. Typical test behaviours are described and the effects of cyclic stress ratio and initial state on the response are discussed. It is shown that the state parameter is capable of predicting the cyclic resistance and the trend of excess pore water pressure generation during one-way compressional cycling and, as has been well established for simple loading paths, critical state soil mechanics is able to provide a reliable framework to characterize the behaviour under different cyclic loading conditions.

Beach-User Attitudes to Shark Bite Mitigation Strategies on Coastal Beaches; Sydney, Australia

ABSTRACTCommon strategies to protect swimmers from unprovoked shark bite incidents on coastal beaches are controversial. We surveyed beach users on two Sydney beaches to gauge their knowledge and attitudes to current and topical shark bite mitigation strategies. Most interviewees (>55%) were aware that shark nets were deployed on each beach, and gave relatively strong (>60%) support for their use. In contrast, beach users were overwhelming against (>80%) the general culling of sharks, and also opposed (>70%) the strategy of catching and killing sharks following a shark bite incident. There was little difference between genders in their attitudes to each strategy, but the oldest age category (51+) surveyed was generally most supportive of the lethal strategies. The results demonstrated the dichotomies in public attitudes to the different mitigation strategies, particularly passive versus active culling, and highlighted the need for greater public education for the development of socially acceptable solutions to shark hazards.

Sampling of total mercury in sand on Sydney beaches and assessment of risk of exposure to children

Accumulation of anthropogenic mercury (Hg) onto coastal environments is potentially putting children playing in these areas, particularly beaches, at risk of exposure to mercury through the ingestion of sand. Samples were collected along 11 of Sydney's beaches and two Newcastle beaches where children may be exposed and analysed using a Direct Mercury Analyser (DMA-80). Risk of exposure was assessed based on Health Canada's exposure threshold for the ingestion of total mercury of 105ng Hg kg-1 BW d-1 and USEPA published values of daily ingestion rates by children (0.2g soil d-1 and 1.75g soil d-1). Concentrations of total mercury in beach sand ranged from 0.0035 to 57.89µg kg-1. Beaches with the highest Hg concentration were found to be located in close proximity to potential mercury sources. The highest daily intake calculated was 7.132ng Hg kg-1 BW d-1, well below the daily intake threshold, indicating children have a minimal exposure risk.

Sampling of total mercury in sand on Sydney beaches and assessment of risk of exposure to children

Accumulation of anthropogenic mercury (Hg) onto coastal environments is potentially putting children playing in these areas, particularly beaches, at risk of exposure to mercury through the ingestion of sand. Samples were collected along 11 of Sydney's beaches and two Newcastle beaches where children may be exposed and analysed using a Direct Mercury Analyser (DMA-80). Risk of exposure was assessed based on Health Canada's exposure threshold for the ingestion of total mercury of 105ng Hg kg-1 BW d-1 and USEPA published values of daily ingestion rates by children (0.2g soil d-1 and 1.75g soil d-1). Concentrations of total mercury in beach sand ranged from 0.0035 to 57.89µg kg-1. Beaches with the highest Hg concentration were found to be located in close proximity to potential mercury sources. The highest daily intake calculated was 7.132ng Hg kg-1 BW d-1, well below the daily intake threshold, indicating children have a minimal exposure risk.

Tsunami Waves of Destruction: The Creation of the “New Australian Catastrophe”

Tsunami Waves of Destruction: The Creation of the “New Australian Catastrophe”

A comparison of attitudes and knowledge of beach safety in Australia for beachgoers, rural residents and international tourists

To compare attitudes and knowledge of beach safety in Australia of beachgoers, rural inland residents and international tourists. This analysis is part of the 2007 baseline survey for the Science of the Surf project and involved interviews of 367 people on beaches in New South Wales (NSW), 62 rural residents of a moderate‐sized inland town and 73 international tourists visiting Sydney beaches. Participants were asked about various aspects of beach safety and shown photographs of beaches and asked to indicate where they would swim and to identify the location of any rip currents. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the predictors of swimming choice. Most beachgoers were aware that swimming between flags indicating a patrolled section of beach was the safe swimming option, but a significant proportion chose not to swim there. Rural residents were more likely than the other two groups to make safe choices about where to swim in the presence of flags. The odds of international tourists making a safe swimming choice in the vicinity of a rip current were three times lower than usual beachgoers and rural inland residents. Improving beach safety will require more refined strategies for specific target groups rather than a series of one‐size‐fits‐all approaches.

Hate and otherness—Exploring emotion through a race riot

Exploring the emotion of hate through the Cronulla race riot that occurred on a Sydney beach in Australia in December 2005, this article’s principle concern is to interrogate the pleasure and the pain of hate, by asking what is happening to us when we hate? Analysing hate as an emotional response to and a soothing strategy for dealing with human alienation, it suggests that crucial to understanding hate is a grasp on the ontological entanglement of self, otherness and hate. Viewing hate through this lens it is possible to become attentive to the ways in which hate is mobilised by and for social institutions such as masculinity and nationalism and enacted as racial hate.

Valuing climate change impacts on Sydney beaches to inform coastal management decisions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the critical need for economic information to inform the selection of coastal management options for the beaches of the Sydney region and to outline the project currently under way to address this information gap.Design/methodology/approachThe critical need for the current case study is framed through presenting a summary of the threats posed by current climate change projections, the legislative requirements for economic valuation of natural resources, and the role which economics can play in selection of appropriate coastal management options in response to climate change impacts.FindingsThe paper presents the valuation methods that were selected for use in the Sydney Beaches Valuation Project and outlines the rationale behind their selection.Originality/valueNo current, empirical estimates of the economic value of Sydney beaches are available, which means that managers must use estimates from studies which may not reflect the unique characteristics of either the Sydney beaches or the social context. The results of the study, in terms of both unit measures of economic value and lessons learned during the survey design process, will therefore be of great value to coastal managers in the Sydney region. An external link provides details of the mixed mode survey instrument, which can be used to inform the design of other similar studies. Given the critical role of economic appraisal methods in selection of coastal management alternatives, the survey structure is potentially of great use to coastal managers in similarly threatened coastal locations elsewhere.

The cosmopolitan city and its Other: the ethnicizing of the Australian suburb

In this article I argue that there has been a significant cultural change in the meanings attached to two specific sites in the Australian cultural imaginary—the city and the suburb. I see this change as the product of opposing versions of multicultural Australia. In several Australian cities, particularly Sydney, although the combination of multiculturalism and economic globalization has helped to create increasingly cosmopolitan inner city suburbs, it has also contributed to the development of an antithetical but perhaps more politically significant version of the middle or outer suburb. This new version of the suburb is defined by minority ethnic or racial identities; it is increasingly represented as criminalized; and its development runs against the grain of the traditional conception of the suburb in the Australian national imaginary, as well as the globalizing rhetoric endorsing a cosmopolitanizing transnational citizenship. The context for the discussion is given particular force by the series of ‘race riots’ which occurred in the Sydney beach suburb of Cronulla in December, 2005. These events raised serious concerns about the fate of multiculturalism in Australia and highlighted the tensions that lie beneath what is often regarded as a successful set of social policies.

The Cronulla riots: exposing the problem with Australia's Anti-vilification laws

The hate crime legislation is introduced in the UK and US to send a strong message to the community that serious racism leading to violence will not be tolerated in a democratic society but such laws are not implemented in Australia because of which violence motivated by racial and ethnic hatred in the Sydney beach town of Cronulla is considered under standard criminal laws. Hate crime legislation must be introduced by Parliament which includes all violent acts which are motivated by racism, ethnic or religious hatred in order to enable the police and the courts to successfully prosecute those who partake in acts such as those carried out in Cronulla as hate crime offenders.

SMS Riot: Transmitting Race on a Sydney Beach, December 2005

SMS Riot: Transmitting Race on a Sydney Beach, December 2005

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Gazing, Strolling, Falling in Love Culture and Nature on the Beach in Nineteenth Century Sydney

In the twentieth century, the Australian beach came to be celebrated as a unique site of ‘Australianness’, with a culture which embraced surfers, surf lifesavers, sunbaking, and beach fashion. Despite the wealth of analysis of this ‘modern’ beach culture, the nineteenth century Australian beach has rarely been examined in depth. This article looks at different attitudes towards ‘culture’ and ‘nature’ on Sydney beaches in the nineteenth century, in an attempt to better understand the roots of twentieth century surf culture. It finds that while culture and nature overlapped in many ways, it was primarily through beachside romance that the two were merged in this early period.This article has been peer-reviewed.

Justifying exclusion: The politics of public space and the dispute over access to McIvers ladies' baths, Sydney

McIvers Baths is an ocean pool in the Sydney beach of Coogee which is open to women and children only. In December 1992, a male resident of Coogee lodged a formal legal complaint of 'discrimination on the grounds of sex' with the Anti-Discrimination Board of New South Wales. Over the next three years, a coalition of activists and institutions campaigned successfully to oppose this complaint and maintain the exclusion of men from McIvers. In this article, the author considers some of the implications of this dispute for contemporary debates over the meaning of urban public space. Drawing on recent re-theorisations of urban public space and the political public sphere, the author suggests that the problematisation of exclusion in critical urban analysis should not necessarily take the form of opposition to exclusion per se. Rather, exclusions should be interrogated with respect to processes through which they are politically justified, thus enabling critical theorists to distinguish between different kinds of exclusion. The article offers some reflections on the dispute over McIvers as a way of thinking through some of the conditions in which certain forms of exclusion might be compatible with a democratic 'right to the city'.

Taking the plunge: recreational water quality guidelines.

During the 1980s, the profile of recreational water quality at Sydney’s beaches caused concern among Sydneysiders. Monitoring of recreational water quality indicated that most Sydney beaches had poor water quality, and this condition was attributed to the disposal of partially-treated sewage at cliff-face discharges. An epidemiological study conducted in 1989–1990 attempted to determine the prevalence of disease that might have been attributed to the water quality at the time.

Environmental variables and their association with faecal coliform and faecal streptococci densities at thirteen Sydney beaches

Environmental variables and their association with faecal coliform and streptococci densities were investigated at a number of Sydney's metropolitan beaches. High variability in faecal coliform and faecal streptococci densities was observed at most beaches. The ability of the various models to explain the observed variation in faecal coliform or streptococci levels was relatively low, although they did provide an insight into the more influential environmental factors involved. Rainfall has the single most important effect on faecal coliform and streptococci densities at Sydney beaches. Whether this is due to increased stormwater runoff at the beaches, increased discharge through the outfalls (both the deepwater ocean outfalls and the few remaining shoreline outfalls), or a combination of both is unclear and is likely to depend on the individual beach being considered. Elevated levels of faecal coliforms and streptococci are still occasionally observed at some beaches, but these levels are usually not as high nor as frequent as they were prior to commissioning of the deepwater outfalls. The significant associations of current and plume entrapment with faecal coliform and streptococci densities at some Sydney beaches suggest that under certain conditions, effluent from the deepwater ocean outfalls can still influence faecal coliform and streptococci densities at these beaches.

The beachwatch pollution monitoring programme: Changing priorities to recognize changed circumstances

Since the commissioning of the three major deepwater outfalls in Sydney, there has been a dramatic improvement in general beach water quality at Sydney's ocean beaches. This has required the NSW Environment Protection Authority's Beachwatch Programme to shift from assessing the impacts of gross sewage pollution due to nearshore outfalls to more diffuse pollution from stormwater and sewer overflows. The visual indicators of gross sewage pollution originally used by Beachwatch for the daily assessment of bacterial water quality are now of limited value. General linear models (with multiple effects) were constructed to identify the secondary indicators which best describe the levels of bacterial contamination due to stormwater pollution. Data from four representative Sydney beaches were modelled separately due to the site-specific effects of pollution sources and hydrodynamics. Factors which were built into the models and were known on the day of prediction were rain amount, presence of stormwater material, the maximum daily stormwater rating, drain or lagoon flows at the time of sampling, and the drain/lagoon bacterial concentration two days before sampling. Results indicate that there is a general linear relationship between visual indicators and bacterial density; however, the reliability of the prediction on a daily basis is poor and rainfall alone as a predictor is equivalent to or better than visual assessment alone. The primary source of information for the preparation of Beachwatch daily pollution bulletins now is rainfall reports from a telemetered network of rain gauges along the coast. This is a more cost-effective approach and has allowed the reallocation of resources to address more directly the problem of stormwater pollution at higher risk beaches.

The health effects of swimming at Sydney beaches. The Sydney Beach Users Study Advisory Group.

The purpose of the study was to determine the health risks of swimming at ocean beaches in Sydney, Australia. From people attending 12 Sydney beaches in the period from December 5, 1989 to February 26, 1990, we recruited a cohort of 8413 adults who agreed to participate in this study. Of these, 4424 were excluded either because they had been swimming in the previous 5 days or because they reported a current illness. Of the remainder, 2839 successfully completed a follow-up telephone interview conducted within 10 days after recruitment. We recorded reported respiratory, gastrointestinal, eye, and ear symptoms and fever that occurred within the 10 days between initial interview on the beach and the follow-up interview. A total of 683 participants (24.0%) reported experiencing symptoms in the 10 days following initial interview. Of these, 435 (63.7%) reported respiratory symptoms. Swimmers were almost twice as likely as nonswimmers to report symptoms. There was a linear relationship between water pollution and all reported symptoms with the exception of gastrointestinal complaints. Swimmers at Sydney ocean beaches are more likely to report respiratory, ear, and eye symptoms than beachgoers who do not swim. The incidence of these symptoms increases slightly with increasing levels of pollution.

Controversy and Closure: Sydney's Beaches in Crisis

In this paper, the controversy over sewage pollution on Sydney beaches and how it should be remedied is used to analyze the concept of `closure', and what it means for technological controversies. Various parties to this controversy attempted to resolve it in several ways: by redefining sewage pollution as an aesthetic problem; by negotiating a consensus at the decision-makers' level about water quality standards; by putting forward what appeared to be `sound arguments'; and by the use of rhetoric. The paper explores the difficulties in applying categories of `closure', and its usefulness as a framework for understanding the dynamics of a controversy, and the power relationships between those involved.