Essay by Eric Worrall
Locals ignored the advice of experts in beach sand erosion management. Now the council is blaming fossil fuel companies for the mess.
Coastal council pushes for levy on fossil fuel giants to fund disaster recovery
By Bec Symons and Danielle Kutchel
ABC GippslandIn short:
Bass Coast Shire Council in south-east Victoria wants the federal government to charge big polluters to help councils and communities recover from environmental disasters.
The council says fossil fuel companies should be held partly responsible for extreme weather events.
What’s next?
The council will write to Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen asking for a levy to be imposed on fossil fuel companies.
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Councillors voted to approve the motion, five votes to four.
“We give away the majority of our gas for free, and we’re exporting it overseas,” Cr Morgan said.
“Australians should be getting a fair share of the returns from the resources that belong to us, and we should use that money to pay for climate damage.”
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In the tourist town of Inverloch, more than 70 metres of foreshore at the surf beach has been lost to erosion since 2012.
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Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-04/bass-coast-council-pushes-fossil-fuel-levy-for-recovery-fund/106624424
In 2025 locals supported a less than optimal plan to prevent beach erosion – pushing for a rock wall to protect an area of beach, rather than building tried and tested groynes, to force ocean currents to drop more sand on the beach;
Inverloch locals losing beach to erosion support disputed rock bag wall fix
By Danielle Kutchel
ABC Gippsland
Sat 2 Aug 2025…
A report written by Inverloch resident and retired engineer Keith Godridge proposes installing a rock bag revetment along the beach to prevent further erosion.
This proposal was endorsed by a majority of those at the meeting.
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University of Melbourne coastal geomorphologist David Kennedy said there was a problem with seawalls like those at Silverleaves and Inverloch.
He said while they might prevent erosion in their location, they could cause it at either end of the wall.
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Mr Kennedy said the most feasible solution would be an integrated coastal plan, taking into account sand movements around the coast in the whole area and potentially groynes (structures built perpendicular to a shoreline), renourishment and walls.
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Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-02/erosion-rock-walls-phillip-island-inverloch/105586884
Groynes should be a no-brainer in a situation like this. Unlike seawalls, which cause gouging and undermining adjacent to the sea wall as currents become turbulent thanks to encountering the sea wall, groynes act to slow down the current which is carrying away the sand, causing the flowing water to drop any sand it is carrying.
Instead of researching practices which have been successfully deployed countless times in nearby Melbourne and many other places, the Bass Coast Shire council decided to go their own way.
To add to the mystery, Bass Coast Shire Council did install groynes in Cowes in 2021 and was apparently pleased with the result – but went with a sea wall in Inverloch.
To be fair I’m not blaming engineer Keith Godridge for suggesting a seawall – from the picture at the top of this article that rock bag seawall successfully protected what looks like a pleasant picnic area. But expecting such a sea wall would protect the rest of the beach was at best an optimistic proposition. If anything the seawall likely accelerated the erosion, if building the seawall narrowed the passage for the sideways moving current which is stealing all their sand. The forces pushing such currents are enormous, if you narrow the passage, the water often responds by flowing faster, and picking up more sand.
This greedy local government call for more taxes on fossil fuel couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Australia really, really needs to convince fossil fuel companies that Australia is a safe place to invest, to build new refineries, to address the fragility of our long distance fuel supply chain.
Threatening arbitrary new taxes is not an incentive to invest. A local government council blaming climate change and fossil fuel companies for their own poor choices, and adding their voice to demands for more taxes on fossil fuel, this is the last thing Australia needs in this difficult time.
