WORK to defend a centre section of Port Fairy’s East Beach rock wall is nearly over but council is still unsure where it will find another $4 million to finish the entire wall.
Excavators have spent two weeks burying massive basalt boulders under the rock wall between the surf club and the toilet block.
Moyne Shire environment services manager Robert Gibson said the work would prevent tides from undercutting soft sand beneath the wall.
“We’re about halfway through rebuilding the wall. It’s been a four to five-week job,” Mr Gibson said.
“The plan has been to have it done before the holiday season.”
But strengthening the two-kilometre rock wall comes at a heavy price with each metre costing as much as $2500. Council estimates it will need to spend at least $4 million to fix the remaining stretch but there is no sign where the cash will come from.
“It’s all subject to getting extra funding,” he said.
Both council and the state government paid for works this month and others near the former tip site last year.
Meanwhile, Moyne Shire is still considering how to replenish sand vanishing from the beach and has been handed a $2 million proposal to use sand dredged from the bay and Moyne River.
