Imagine purchasing your dream beachside family home but not being able to live in it.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This is the sad reality facing Sue and Mal Knauer and their two young sons, the Manyana family whose house has been deemed “unliveable”, following a landslide in 2015.
The Knauer’s awoke to find their neighbours backyard slipping into the ocean on August 25, 2015, following a large amount of rain. The family lost four square metres of land, while their neighbour lost 400 square metres in the slip.
Despite this, only the young family’s home has been deemed unlivable, because an engineers report found the back, left foundation to be exposed and ‘potentially unstable’.
Mrs Knauer said Shoalhaven City Council had been of “no assistance” since the incident, even though they say part of the slip is on council land.
"Originally a council employee told us that the house was safe and it was only top soil run off,” she said.
“We have had several meetings with them and they say they are going to do something, but nothing has ever eventuated.
“I want them to do something about their land and I will fix mine. The entire back boundary, about 15 metres across of their land, is affected, according to the survey we had done”
However, council senior planner Warwick Papworth said a geotechnical engineer’s report said “no remediation work was required” on council land. This is being reviewed.
“Due to a report submitted by the neighbours, we have agreed to have our geotechnical engineer reassess the situation and provide us with advice,” he said.
Mr Papworth said council had provided “advice” to all affected landowners.
“Council has suggested that they co-ordinate with the adjoining owners on a joint remediation proposal,” he said.
“They have chosen not to follow this course. The landslip occurred on private the land, a geotechnical engineer’s reports confirm this, [and] the remediation is the responsibility of the private landowners.”
Council’s position on the landslip is that “the cause of the landslip was the high intensity rain that fell during the event, the investigation and design of remediation works on private land is the landholders responsibility, that landholders of affected properties should be taking temporary measures until remediation works can be carried out and that the priority for public expenditure is to protect public safety”.
Mrs Knauer said the entire headland had ongoing stormwater and drainage issues, which were identified in a 2008 SMEC report.
The report identified 30 houses at risk.
In November 2015, council resolved to review all previous hazard studies and recent reports on areas of coastal cliff/slope stability in relation to future management, monitoring, owner notification and development controls for areas at risk with an emphasis on stormwater management.
“The report recommended the owners of each property should be responsible for drainage and stormwater management,” Mr Papworth said.
Mrs Knauer called on council to fix the affected land urgently and finalise the Coastal Zone Management plan that has been in draft since 2008.
“Implementation of a coastal management plan for the area would allow the council to apply for some of the $83.6 million on offer from the State Government,” she said.
Mr Papworth said funding was not available for remediation of private land and council cannot access disaster funding for remediation of coastal storm damage on our land either.
The family’s neighbour, whose land is most affected by the slip, has started work to secure their land.
“Any plans on that land will affect our plans and our land. You can’t fix the problem unless we all work together and know what the plan is,” Mrs Knauer said.
“We need to fix this together. Without that land being fixed, it is still susceptible.
“The plan was originally for a ‘U’ shape gabion wall set up. It was to be four metres at the back, but it has been changed to three metres, has a set of stairs in the middle and the side walls have been removed.
“The walls were to hold the soil in place. We can’t figure out what is now going to hold the soil in.”
The plans on council’s website show a three-metre gabion wall, stepped up the hill, with rock backfill and steel wire mesh filling the hole between the wall and the house.
The Knauer family have now been given 14 days to vacate the house, although they have not been living in it for two years, 28 days to put a plan of rectification to council and 90 days to have the land remediated.
“It has taken [our neighbours] two years to finalise a plan,” Mrs Knauer said.
“When we know what the final plan for [next door] is and what council’s final plan is, we will be able to attempt to finalise our plan to fit in with that.
“An order to have the land remediated within 90 days is absolutely impossible.”
The family has had to adjust from a four-bedroom home to a small two-bedroom house, with two sons.
“We just want to go home. It’s cramped,” Mrs Knauer said.
“We have felt the impact on the kids more than us, that was their home and their safe environment. It has been extremely stressful.
“Teenagers want their own space, they want to play music and they don’t have much space to do it here.”