WHEN a series of storm swells battered the threatened beachfront at Stockton a few months ago, all eyes were on Newcastle City Council and the NSW government, as a justifiably disappointed community called for an end to the dithering and finger-pointing: all levels of authority needed to work together on a way to counter the long-term stripping of sand from the southern end of the bight.
At the height of the controversy over the forced closing of popular beachfront cafe Lexie's, rumours circulated that, despite spirited community opposition, the council was working on plans to extend the two beachfront rock walls.
VIDEO:Relentless waves pummel Stockton shore, September 2019
While both have been effective in stopping ocean encroachment along their lengths, the water in front of the main Pembroke Street to Stone Street wall has tended to deepen over the years, and hundreds of metres of once family-friendly beach has been lost in the process.
The release this week of the council's draft coastal management plan for Stockton shows that extended rock walls are indeed part of the proposed solution, together with a series of options to get sand back into the near inshore waters, as well as the beach itself.
Previous reports have shown the sand loss is a consequence of 200 years of human alteration to the mouth of the Hunter River.
Sand is travelling south to north, and a survey comparison in the new plan shows offshore erosion - from the township north to Fort Wallace and beyond - of more than eight metres in depth.
The draft plan lays out a timetable for spending some $10 million over five years on new rock walls and a modest amount of beach sand from terrestrial sources, while the Port of Newcastle dredge, the David Allan, will continue to drop limited amounts of suitable harbour sand offshore.
A volume on sand sources published with the draft plan confirms earlier reasoning that large-scale offshore dredging is the only way to provide enough sand to bring the southern end of Stockton into anything like equilibrium.
The Gold Coast's success with this method is the closest thing we'll see to proof of an answer to Stockton's problems.
With a swift start - enabled by state government legislative backing and sufficient funding - offshore dredging might make enough of a difference to mean the rock wall extensions weren't needed.
That would indeed be a win-win.
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