UPDATED: Stockton beach will remain closed on Thursday due to severe erosion.
A City of Newcastle spokesman said coastal engineers were on site assessing the damage.
A survey is being conducted from the ground and air using a drone.
MORE TO COME
HIGH tides and big swells continue to thrash Stockton beach causing further devastating sand erosion threatening the caravan park and a popular beach cafe.
The relentless conditions have left the car park near Lexie's on the Beach, that adjoins Stockton caravan park, dangerously close to falling into the sea.
The latest battering forced the City of Newcastle to close all access to the beach on Wednesday afternoon, besides from King St near the breakwater.
On Wednesday morning, beachgoers were faced with sheer drops of up to four metres to get to the water's edge after extensive overnight scarping along the coastal strip.
Stockton businessman Lucas Gresham said residents were "fed up" with the lack of action.
He described it as "heartbreaking" to watch the beach simply "wash away".
"We are living day-by-day in hope that something will change," he said.
"But enough is enough. The inaction from the state government and the temporary solutions given by the local council is not an effective resolution."
Mr Gresham started a GoFundMe page on Wednesday afternoon, donating $500 to kick it off, in an effort to investigate a community class action against the NSW government.
His aim is to get the matter before the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), a community legal centre specialising in public interest environmental law, to ask for help.
Last week, the council moved to protect several roads, the abandoned child-care centre - that was forced to permanently close this month due to erosion - and a string of beachfront homes under immediate threat along Barrie Crescent at the south of Mitchell St.
It has built a sand-filled geo-fabric wall as an interim protection measure until a long-term solution is found.
The immediate threat has now shifted further south, with the car park near popular cafe Lexie's on the Beach under threat.
Drone footage taken along the beach on Wednesday morning shows the car park just metres from falling into the sea.
A City of Newcastle spokesman said coastal engineers would inspect the beach on Thursday morning.
RELATED READING:
- Community meeting told Stockton beach losing a metre a year
- Mission Australia's storm damaged Stockton early learning centre
- Childcare centre's future under cloud in erosion saga
- Childcare centre forced to close temporarily due to beach erosion threat
- Council back to drawing board over long-term solution for Stockton erosion
- Playground of Stockton's Mission Australia early learning centre set to be relocated as a result of erosion threat
- Fears childcare centre could crumble into the sea
- Stockton solution moves forward with meeting
- Garbage tip washing into the sea at Stockton
- State government handballs responsibility for Stockton beach
- 2017: Exposed mine shaft shows Stockton beach's erosion problem needs 'urgent' solution
- 2016: Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes suggests 'underground breakwall'
- 2016: Worst erosion in memory leaves Stockton beach exposed to next storm
- 2014: Dangerous erosion on Stockton Beach
- 2013: Stockton beach erosion | photos, video
IN OTHER NEWS:
- Iran charges former Newcastle hairdresser Jolie King and partner Mark Firkin with spying over drone pictures
- Landmark ruling rejects coal mine because of intergenerational inequity
- Brian Crickitt continues to 'strongly proclaim' his innocence for killing his wife by insulin injection
- Mining jobs increase in Hunter Region in 2018/19 financial year, NSW Minerals Council figures show
