It is several years since the ocean has stopped beach lovers and fishers walking along the sand at low tide on any given day onto Crampton Island at Lake Tabourie.
Video: After the violent early June storms Jed Garkut from Bawley Point came looking for a big glassy swell to surf at Tabourie and, like local residents, was surprised by what he saw:
“Far out, it’s all gone, all the sand’s washed away, the inlet’s starting to exit out that [south] side of the beach now, so cool,” Jed said.
Wind and waves have carved the sand spit away to let the lake flow out to the south of the island, the entrance now 100 metres wide.
The small swimming bay, often protected, that formed a horseshoe with the nearby shallow rocky reef is a memory and the torrents have chiseled to the start of the tall sand dune that stayed intact, probably saved by the ebb of the king tide and the wind easing.
The storm surge and the two-metre tide caused the lake to peak at 1.78 metres (AHD).
It rained on the parade of a group of senior Tabourie residents who had low-key celebrations a couple of days before to open the new 180-metre gravel-surfaced walking path along the eastern edge of the lake from the Beach Street carpark to the boardwalk.
One, Margie Binder, said she loved the improved path, “not like years ago when I tripped over a tree root and fell on another and broke my ribs”.
Jan and Ted Wild love the upgrade which enables Ted to walk side-by-side to help Jan.
A new bench seat is popular - the view in both directions is beautiful and it offers a resting spot before heading down to the boardwalk.
But for now, the boardwalk is a twisted mess, even for sure-footed walkers past the plastic orange warning barrier.
Though drenched by the storms, the new path surface is intact but at the end where it meets the boardwalk, the last couple of metres have been undermined by floodwater.
Councillor Patricia White and resident Robyn Smith had previously formed a working group of two and rounded up grants of $7500 to be used in some way in the community to improve the lives or situations of older residents.
Time lapse video: Take a rapid five second trot along the damaged boardwalk to where it meets the new gravel path. You can pause the action at any point.
