Uncertain future for historic Eyre Peninsula jetties due to coastal erosion costs

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

A year after Tumby Bay residents celebrated the town's reopened jetty with a freezing early morning winter solstice swim, the jetty's future is as uncertain as ever.
Today marks the day the District Council of Tumby Bay officially hand back responsibility of Tumby Bay and Port Neill's jetties to the state government.
The council made the decision to terminate the lease of their town's jetty a year earlier than anticipated.
"The spending and works required to maintain the jetty is not in the sustainable financial capacity of our ratepayers — you the community," Mayor Geoff Churchett wrote in a letter to residents on June 5.
It marks a tough week for jetties in South Australia, with king tides, rain and strong winds destroying the Robe, Kingston and Normanville jetties in the state's south-east on Tuesday.
In Tumby Bay, an estimated $4.7 million of funding is required to repair the jetty, which was built in 1874 and rebuilt in 1999.
In February, the state government offered $2.4 million to fix the jetty in a 50-50 funding deal with the council, under the SA Jetties Renewal Program, which the council rejected due to financial constraints.
The decision drew the ire of state Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis.
"The state government has advised the Tumby Bay Council that this jetty remains the responsibility of council unless or until it returns it in an appropriate condition," he said.
The state government has contacted council requesting a report on previous works on the jetty, due by Monday.
The Tumby Bay community has seen this episode before.
The Port Neill jetty was built in 1912, while Tumby Bay's jetty was built in 1874, and re-built in 1999. The community banded together in 1972 to save a section of the jetty.
About 400 people gathered at the jetty to protest against its closure in February 2024, before the Tumby Bay Progress Association raised $75,000, which went towards repairs.
"There's a lot of apprehension and a lot of unknown and I supposed that's what scares everybody — the unknown," says local Dion LeBrun, who is a part of the Progress Association that raised funds to help the re-opening last winter.
"We're all concerned about what the next steps are going to be."
Tumby Bay is not the only council struggling in this space.
Local governments from around the country converged on Canberra this week for the National General Assembly of Local Government.
The impact of coastal erosion means much-loved and historic jetties around SA are becoming more expensive than ever to fix — a topic expected to feature in many of conversations in Canberra this week.
"Jetties are a hot topic for us as a state and we'll continue to keep that advocacy piece going," said Jo-Anne Quigley, Mayor of the District Council of Lower Eyre Peninsula, which leases several jetties, including one still in commercial operation at Coffin Bay.
"We all know the social impacts of jetties for our communities and for visitors and tourism, so we feel it's a really important conversation.
"We understand and accept the leases are from a state perspective, but the federal government needs to step up and give some more money to the states so we can keep our jetties renewed and in the condition that they need to be in."
Local resident Robert Randall moved to Tumby Bay in 2017 to be closer to his children and grandchildren.
He is a spokesperson for the For the People group, and is critical of the council's decision to reject the funding offer.
"My position all along is that the community would have been better off matching the $2.4 million that the government put up, and then we would have had a new jetty for 15 years, which is what the minister advised it would cost," he said.
"My latest concern now is that this week we've lost three or four jetties in SA, so have we lost any opportunity of getting that $2.4 million from the government? I don't know."
Mayor Churchett echoed the sentiments of constituents and state government in saying the future was uncertain.
"We don't know at this stage what's going to happen," he said.
"We just want to sit down and talk see if there's a way we can resolve this that's going to suit us all — the state government, local government and the people."