Sand returning to St Clair beach..
Click photo to enlarge
Harvest time at Springfield Estate, Methven, where 23 binders were at work. - Otago Witness, 30.12.1908.
The Ocean Beach possesses remarkable characteristics, one of which is the undertow that makes it such a dangerous place to bathe from, and incidentally shifts so many tons of sand.
For this the tremendous inrush of billows to the Brighton Bight is mainly responsible.
The heaped-up waters find an easy egress by the narrow channel between White Island and Forbury Head, through which they pass at the rate of three miles an hour, thus causing a scour, which, though felt most severely at St. Clair, affects the whole foreshore right down to Lawyer's Head.
Were it not for the Ocean Beach Domain Board, a high spring tide, accompanied by a heavy gale from southerly, might result in a flooded St. Kilda.
A buffer has been found in the sand, swept to and fro by the sea and blown about in clouds by every wind.
Not a very stable material but with a little ingenuity and a great deal of perseverance the Domain Board has succeeded beyond expectations.
Scrub fences were erected to act as revetments, and the sand drifted and covered them, precisely as it blotted out the cities of the Pharaohs.
More fences were made and in turn covered, and the coarse, hardy sand grass, spreading and growing steadily, served further, as it were, to bind the compact.
• A strong, respectable-looking man came before the Benevolent Trustees yesterday, and, with the homely burr of Scotland, asked for aid.
He was 30 years of age, was married, and had been employed as a warehouse measurer in Glasgow.
Times were bad there, and he had scraped together enough money to pay his passage to New Zealand.
Having had experience of work in woollen mills, he applied at the Oamaru, Roslyn, and Mosgiel mills in vain.
On Monday he had walked in from Mosgiel, after having spent Sunday night in a stable, and was now literally starving.
He broke down then, and the big manly frame, weakened by hunger and the long, vain search for work and independence, was shaken with weary sobs.
The trustees promised him immediate help, and sent him off with a coin, cheered and grateful, to buy himself a good square meal. - ODT, 10.12.1908.
The two research studies that were commissioned recently are now well underway.
The first of these (the ecological study into fauna and flora) should be finished before the end of 2008, while the second research program (studies into historical, cultural and social elements) will take some months to complete.
The next steps in the latter studies include further consultation with the public and community groups. Letters are being sent to those groups now, inviting them to attend focus group meetings that are being arranged for late November/early December.
Discussion at these meetings should help identify key community aspirations for Ocean Beach, the foreshore and the Domain generally.
A full topographical survey of Ocean Beach was carried out in late October as part of the long term planning process for the Beach, and a bathymetric survey should get underway next month.
Separately, a 'Cam-Era' site has been identified, and two cameras have now been installed that are providing digital, time lapse photos of the beach and surf lines on the Ocean Beach.
The images provided by these cameras can be seen on the NIWA website (opens in a new window).
