This week’s landslip in the Morning Peninsula has bought back memories of a similar coastal incident in Newcastle following the 2021 floods.
The Victorian occurrence destroyed a clifftop home in the town of McRae at 9am on Tuesday 14 January and sent a council worker to hospital.
It was the second landslip at the $2 million property in less than two weeks as owners had originally contacted local authorities after a minor incident on 6 January.
“We had a geotechnical engineer come out and assess the site 24 or 48 hours after (the slip) and prepare a report and the site was deemed unsafe,” Mornington Peninsular mayor Anthony Marsh told AAP.
“Since then, we’ve spoken to the owners and to the insurers to list issues and have notified recommendations, and over the past sort of week, our staff have been there regularly, just doing investigations about the site.
“But, had we not seen that, who knows what could have happened?”
Newcastle’s Landslip
The landslip involving a similar multi-million-dollar coastal property on Shortland Esplanade in Newcastle in March 2021 ended with a partial collapse of the home’s modern deck and pool area.
Thankfully, the six other connected heritage terraces were not damaged.
It followed New South Wales’ wettest week since national daily rainfall.
The clean-up operation by the NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) and City of Newcastle (CN) took days to clear tonnes of mud blocking the road adjacent to the picturesque Cowrie Hole.
Sea cliff homes issues
University of Melbourne geomorphologist David Kennedy said building heavy structures such as houses on top of sea cliffs destabilised soil and could trigger slides.
“That can happen by putting weight on top of the cliff, it can also happen by building on the cliff face itself or even at the base of it,” he told AAP.
“The debris supports it and once you remove it that starts to make things a lot more unstable.”
An advice alert for the McRae incident warns the Mornington Peninsula landslide could continue to move for days.
Multiple nearby homes remained a concern and were being monitored by authorities, SES operations manager Chris Gregory said.
“A couple of them were vacant holiday homes and others had residents who were working with councils and other agencies to make sure they have a safe place to go,” he explained in an interview with ABC Radio Melbourne.
Authorities have disconnected utility services in nearby properties as they assess the area for danger and the Nepean Highway has been closed between McCrae and Dromana.
- With AAP
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