Coastal degradation – a painting project
Coastal degradation – I don’t often paint about issues. Every now and then I make an exception.
Yesterday was the perfect morning for painting – clear and calm. The forecast was for 30 degrees. The coastline looked fine.
School holidays and fine weather brought a few families down to the beach. One of the children was a young neighbour who had been creating stobie pole art in my studio with my guidance. But that’s a story for another post.
Earlier in April I attended a seminar for artists on coastal degradation, beach erosion and sand management systems. It was conducted by Dr Ian Dyson a Marine Geologist with strong ideas about current coastline management practices. We visited two beaches and a bakery. The beaches? A healthy one at Port Elliot, and an unhealthy one at Victor Harbor. The aim was to better inform our work for the June exhibition “Dire” organised by the Centre for Culture, Land and Sea.
Lots of information was imparted that day, but the simplest and probably most important message for me was how to read the signs of a healthy beach. And how? It is all in the berm. That low rise of sand, held by ephemeral vegetation, which lies at the foot of the dune as a buffer between the dune and the water.
So today I ventured out to a local beach, looking in vain for the berm. The dune profile is too steep too and we are familiar with the cliff-like collapses of the dunes’ front face in winter storms.
My plan is to venture back to Port Elliot on our south coast to capture the berm and the healthy beach profile. As a pair of paintings they will contribute to the story of our problems with the metropolitan coastline.
I have another reason to return to Port Elliot. Remember the two beaches and the BAKERY? They make the best pasties on the south coast, perhaps on the whole Fleurieu Peninsula, but I can’t say that for sure!
