Sandringham Foreshore Newsletter Spring Issue

September 2013
SANDRINGHAM FORESHORE ASSOCIATION (SFA)
Founded January 2007
ABN 42947116512

A CHARITABLE NOT FOR PROFIT VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION

SFA
PO Box 52
Sandringham 3191
E-mail: sandyforeshore@optusnet.com.au Website www.sandyforeshore.net.au

From the president of SFA

Dr Vicki Karalis

In this issue, SFA are proud to profile Cristian Silver, our co-editor, who has
written an historical reflection about Sandringhams beaches and surrounding
village. Cristian wrote the beautiful profile of Ray Lewis in our last issue of the
SFA newsletter June 2013, and is a long-term resident who grew up in
Sandringham, observing its many changes. We are grateful for his contribution.

We are also pleased to announce that our meeting with the Minister of
Environment and Climate Change, Ryan Smith took place in Parliament,
together with our local MP Murray Thompson and representatives of the
Department of Environment and Primary Industry (DEPI) formerly known as
DSE and regional director of DEPI, Port Phillip Bay, Travis Dowling. We have
met with the Minister twice, on one occasion on our beach in March, where he
witnessed our concerns first hand. We have found him to be a delightful, bright
person and we felt our concerns were fully acknowledged. Travis also joined me
for a private walk along our beach recently.
Subsequently a community expert coastal reference group has been established
to help address these and other local coastal Bayside issues. This workshop will
occur early October and is a joint venture of DEPI and Bayside City Council
(BCC). The workshop will focus first on the Sandringham coastal processes
issue, to be addressed as a priority topic. An external facilitator and coastal
engineer have been appointed by BCC to ensure the workshop runs successfully
with some positive outcomes at the conclusion of the event. An external coastal
engineer will be engaged to provide technical information and review any
proposed management options. We are confident of achieving some real
outcomes to help address these ongoing coastal erosion problems.
We are extremely grateful to Minister Smith, Travis Dowling, our local Council,
Mayor, Councillors, DEPI and Murray Thompson, for their ongoing interest and
support in our efforts to help protect our foreshore in Sandringham.
We are also grateful to Dale and Ben Cohen of Cohen architects (Sandringham)
who contributed their time to prepare a graphic design of our proposal to
address the coastal erosion at the Sandringham beaches. This design was a
nice summary of our proposal to assist the understanding of the needs of our
beach.
We are also privileged to discuss our proposal with Associate Professor Ian
Goodwin, of the Marine Climate Risk Group, Climate Futures and Department
of Environment and Geography, Macquarie University, some of the
circumstances of the Sandringham beaches, and we value the on-going support
from Dr Wayne Stephenson, who is now based in New Zealand at the University
of Otago.

Below are sample photos of our local beach as it appears today demonstrating
return of the sand to the southern beaches but sand depletion at Tennyson St
beach, resulting in further cliff erosion over the past fortnight or so.
We would value your thoughts.
Yours with kindness,
Vicki Karalis

Tennyson St beach 9/9/2013

Royal Ave beach 9/9/2013

Edward St beach 10/09/2013

Bayside City Council

SFA value our relationship with Bayside City Council who liaise with us on a
regular basis with issues affecting our local beaches, and to discuss areas that
require attention. If you have any concerns, feel free to write to us:
sandyforeshore@optusnet.com.au

Draft Bayside Coastal Management Plan 2012/13

Sandringham Foreshore Association thanks Bayside City Council for early
consultation with the community in developing the draft Bayside Coastal
Management Plan 2012/13. Committee members of SFA attended all of the
workshops. These events were well attended by a number of passionate and
enthusiastic locals all sharing an interest in thoughtful management of our
foreshore zones.
The draft CMP will be produced and, once endorsed by Council, will go out for
consultation prior to being adopted. Completion was expected in June 2013.
The Coastal Management plan can be viewed by visiting the web link:
http://www.bayside.vic.gov.au/Draft_Discussion_Paper_for_public_comment_
December_2012.pdf
For more information contact the Open Space Coordinator Simon Finlay on
9599 4444 and refer to Council's website:
http://www.bayside.vic.gov.au/opencoast.htm

Banksia Bulletin
Banksia Bulletin relies on volunteered contributions from our wonderful
community. Please find the latest edition of the Banksia Bulletin by visiting the
web link: http://www.bayside.vic.gov.au/environment_banksia_bulletin.htm
http://issuu.com/triermurphy/docs/bcc13488_banksia_bulletin_spring_20

SANDRINGHAM & BLACK ROCK REVEGETATION (BRASCA)

Meet Bob Whiteway alternate Tuesday mornings 10-11.30am followed by tea.
For more details: 9502 0060 (Bob Whiteway)

National Tree Day on Sunday 28th July

Thank you to Jo Hurse, Bushland & Nursery Team Leader of Citywide for
organising revegetation of the cliff face at Picnic Point Sandringham beach on
National Tree day. It was well attended by a number of enthusiastic people
who helped make it a successful day. Revegetation and retaining bushland is
essential for preventing erosion of our cliffs. Below are photos of some of the

helpers working hard, but what a beautiful setting! (Permission received with
kind thanks from Jo Hurse)

Talk on Beaumaris Bay Fossil site

8.00pm, Thursday 12th September
St Michaels Anglican Church Hall,
28-32 Dalgetty Road, Beaumaris
You are invited to join Beaumaris Conservation Society for a talk on the
Beaumaris Bay Fossil site by Celeste Ward, an RMIT research student who is
studying the site. The talk details are:
Impact Assessment of the Beaumaris Motor Yacht Squadron Safe Harbour
Proposal
Celeste writes:
I am in my final semester of studying environmental engineering at RMIT
University. My research project, supervised by Professor John Buckeridge, is an
investigation of the Beaumaris Motor Yacht Squadrons redevelopment
proposal. I will be presenting my findings of the potential impacts of the

proposed safe harbour on the local community and environment. I will be

specifically focusing on the geological significance of the site and the potential
impact on sediment transport processes.
The talk will be preceded from 7.30pm by the 61st annual general meeting of
Beaumaris Conservation Society.
Please phone: 0429176725, for any queries.
Details on Beaumaris Conservation Society at: www.bcs.asn.au

Heart urchins (spatangoids) Lovenia woodsii

Fossils found in Beaumaris about 5 million years old

A snapshot history of Sandringham

By Cristian Silver
Cristian Silver has worked as a tour guide, express coach driver and in the film/TV industry,
and has returned to freelance writing as a pursuit. Out and about he always enjoys
conversations with travellers and other dog-walkers about their own corner of the world,
and is most concerned that too many people spend too much time behind screens, staring at
small screens, and not noticing what is going on around them...

As part of the original Shire of Moorabbin, Sandringham was officially named in

1917. In the early 1900s the stretch of bay between Brighton and Beaumaris
was a popular retreat from the clamour of bustling Melbourne, and local retail
centres grew accordingly at the most attractive and practical seaside points
most marked early on by the construction of a prominent hotel. Accessibility
grew with frequent rail services; the line constructed in the 1880s was the first
to be upgraded for electric in 1919, and the tram link to Beaumaris made it an
easy trip for holiday-makers and day trippers alike.

Apart from considerable (and not necessarily desirable) development, the stillcharming shopping strips have retained a surprising amount of character from
those times; consider the period buildings along Hampton Street or Bay Road.
Coffee houses were fashionable then, too, (youre not the first to discover
this repast) for the seaside visitor take a good look around and you may
notice details that have survived. A good example is a 1900s advertisement for
sodas, previously covered in layers of paint, revealed on a building in Melrose
Street. Historic facades along Hampton Street have had important or colourful
history, in contrast to the repetition of todays trends in suburban retail (the
first caf building Lido, c. 1910 still survives on Beach Road near Small Street).
The mixed-bag of the Bay Road shops also preserve some history, often
revealed as a new proprietor renovates sometimes with more appreciation
for historic value than demonstrated in previous decades. Remember though;
the random, un-looked-after charm is fast-disappearing.
The seaside we love has changed, certainly. Seasides are always
changing; the tides come and go, the beach settles then is washed away in a
storm you compare a photo from 1925 and it looks as now in between
there are anomalies; the wash-out of 2005 looked remarkably similar to a

photo from seventy years earlier when a rare tornado struck the bay in the
1930s. General land features can be matched to those depicted in the
landscapes of late nineteenth century artists; consider Bayside City Councils
Coastal Art Trail which helps reveal the prominence of artists experiences
here during the Australian impressionist period.
Wind and water erosion are primary forces shaping the coastline, and
many things have been tried with varying success over the years to counter
them. Dumping road-fill, timber or rock groynes, and the famous bluestone
sea-walls are all attempts to preserve the natural asset which becomes less
natural with each attempt. Its obvious, in retrospect, that attempts to
preserve the beaches is spent with the aim to retain the beach for ourselves
maybe this is futile and selfish yet it displays an endearing appreciation and
desire to preserve something we love which is rather out of our control.
Artificial additions have marred parts (Red Bluff car-park an example)
and perhaps unintentionally preserved others. The early planting of kikuyu
and pig-face has dominated some indigenous species, yet helped preserve the
cliffs from excessive erosion, while creating a colourful hillside in Spring. The
Canary-Island palms, fashionable in the age of rotundas, are landmarks in their
own right as much as the native banksias are at Ricketts Point. Native bird
species have adapted to the cover of introduced shrubbery, and indigenous
plantings are funded and supported with the aim to return diversity to the
coast overseas visitors are often quite taken by our peculiar native plants.
Important publications by local authors (all branches of Bayside Library
Services hold copies) are excellent sources for further study to gain an insight
into the localitys social and environmental history during its formative years,
as experiences of those early residents have gradually passed from living
memory. And, people tell you things that become your own knowledge in a

way. One such person once wrote to my sixth-grade at Sandringham Primary

School, to describe Sandringham as she remembered it in the early 1900s. She
described floral heath spreading through to Highett, cattle grazing in Hampton,
and numerous local characters well-known throughout the small community.
Where are they now, you might ask or do you already know one or two?
Why is it that you moved to the area, whenever that was? Locals usually
express appreciation for the beautiful seaside before mention of the diverse
housing options, the train or bus close by (or even the myriad cafes). I recently
spoke to a woman of ninety-two (she proudly told me); newly married, she and
her late husband were attracted to post-war Sandringham because it seemed
distant from the city, from the noisy inner suburbs. Work could be left at
relative, though not inconvenient, distance. A much younger woman
described the same sort of thing after ten years living in London. An ex-hipster
enjoys it now an alternative to the lifestyle he fled to Brunswick for, ten years
ago. Some of my own old school-friends have (with considerable effort)
managed to secure a home close to where they grew up, because they wish
the same for their small children, as they once enjoyed.

Travellers and tourists from Cities and towns with a suburban spread around a
bay, like this one, have said as much to me about places they were fortunate to
grow up in, which are now out of reach for (most of) their children how the
bay here seems as home was to them, thirty or forty years ago.
So it is a thing to enjoy and preserve, where possible, and each
achievement made through community activism, to preserve a natural
environment (the recent Federal Government approval to retain part of
Highetts Grassy Woodlands is a notable example) or sensible approach to
developing the built environment is an achievement that, as local residents, we

should share proudly be inspired to assist with and continue where

necessary. Real estate copywriters will suggest with vivid buzz-phrases why
you should appreciate this suburb by the sea, but the people I often meet, in
any weather, out walking their dogs along the beaches from Hampton to Black
Rock, always allude to the same state of being; the feeling of freedom and
connection with nature not measurable in monetary or contemporary values;
the timeless walk along the seaside.

Historical photo of our local beach

Provided by Shirley Joy, Sandringham resident

Red Bluff, Sandringham

Do you know when this photo may have been taken?
Notice there is no seawall at the base of the cliffs. Do you know when the
wall was built? Please let us know your opinion.

We hope you have enjoyed reading the SFA Spring September 2013
newsletter.
Yours with kindness,

Dr Vicki Karalis,
SFA President
Assistant editors, SFA Newsletter: Helen Gibson & Cristian Silver
SFA committee members:
Alison Horton, Vice-President
Adrienne Smith, Secretary
Craig Francis, Treasurer
Ike Solomon, Engineer
Helen Gibson, Geologist
Paul Hede, Architect
Laurie Evans, Architect and local Councillor
Ruby Campbell-Beschorner