RGSQ News

Dr Annie Lau grew up in Hong Kong where she completed her high school education and her undergraduate and M. Phil degrees. She completed her PhD in Singapore. Annie is currently a Lecturer in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UQ, specializing in geomorphology, coastal science, coastal change, storms, and tsunamis in the Pacific and Australia. Annie is an RGSQ Councilor and Treasurer.

Dr Annie Lau in 2016 visiting Lavena, Taveuni, Fiji

Why did you first become interested in being a geographer?

I have always loved maps and spent hours reading road maps with my younger brother. Geography was my favourite subject in school. I enjoyed learning about mountains, rivers, population change and urban development. I was particularly amazed by the fact that I could apply the concepts learned in class to better understand the natural disasters reported in the news. I feel blessed that I am still working in the field of natural hazards, and that I can share my passion with students as I teach the “Environmental hazards” course at UQ now.

What do you see as your main contributions to Geography?

My research focuses on using landforms, rocks, and sediments to understand how and why coastlines change through time. Some changes are gradual (e.g. accumulation of sand to form dunes), while some happen within minutes (e.g. erosion caused by natural hazard events). The results of my work can help stakeholders and policymakers to make better decisions in risk and land management for protecting coastal environments, habitats, and people.

What has been your greatest joy in your work as a geographer?

Spending time and talking with people in coastal communities, especially in more isolated, remote places, motivates me to research coastal hazards as I can help people to understand the past and be better prepared for future hazards like cyclones and tsunamis. At the same time, I always feel very contented and excited to learn about nature as local people share their knowledge with me generously.

The RGSQ is a proud supporter of geographical science in Queensland. Between 1992 - 2012 the Society and its passionate members supported seven Scientific Studies at sites of interest across the state. Each study generated a detailed report about the site and relevant scientific outcomes.

The RGSQ Publications Committee has worked with the University of Queensland Library to digitise and publish these reports in UQ eSpace, an open-access repository of research materials.

We would like to thank Kellie Ashley (SEES Liaison Librarian), Tracey Powell (eSpace Librarian), and Dulcie Stewart (Metadata Creation Officer), for their help in digitising and making these reports available in eSpace.

Follow the links below to access the reports:

• ·         1992 – Heathlands, Cape York Peninsula
• ·         1995 – Musselbrook Reserve, Lawn Hill National Park
• ·         1997 – North East Herald Cay, Coral Sea Islands Territory
• ·         2000 – White Mountains National Park, near Hughenden
• ·         2002 – Sweers Island and Pennefather River, Guld of Carpentaria
• ·         2007 – Cravens Peak, South-West Queensland
• ·         2012 – Pungalina Seven-Emu, Northern Territory

John Tasker, RGSQ President

With restrictions easing and hospitalisation rates dropping, I encourage members to take full opportunity of the in-person and hybrid events currently organised for the coming months. We have an exciting program ahead, including our March Lecture from Steve Noakes who is set to provide insights into the early history of Binna Burra and the RGSQ. In addition, event registrations are now open for several activities, so please visit the RGSQ website to ensure you don’t miss out!

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics have been a fascinating event. With more than 180km between the key venues in Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou, the 2022 Winter Olympics are one of the most spatially distributed in over 20 years. While engineering solutions have solved many challenges, including a driverless high-speed railway and more than 350 snow machines, the environmental cost of any modern Olympics remains a major concern. I encourage you to follow the links below to learn more about some of the key achievements and challenges of the recent Winter Olympics. As Queensland progresses towards our own Olympic Games in 2032, understanding the challenges of the events today is critical to inform how we can do better over the next decade.

As discussed last year, the Council and I will be working on a new Strategic Plan for RGSQ over the coming months. To support this work, we will shortly be releasing a survey so that all members can provide their input to shape the direction of RGSQ over the coming four years. I look forward to your participation and encourage any member to reach out to me to discuss our opportunities and challenges.

References:

• A Satellite View of Olympic Terrain (nasa.gov)
• We couldn't have the Beijing Olympics without snow machines. How do they work, and what's the environmental cost? (theconversation.com)
• Artificial Snow: A Slippery Slope - American Chemical Society (acs.org)
• Badaling Great Wall Station: The world's deepest high-speed railway station | CNN Travel

John Tasker, President

Dr Iraphne Childs, RGSQ President

Dear Members, I hope this finds you in good health and enjoying the start of our spring weather, awaiting the arrival of the purple jacaranda haze adorning our city - opportunities for some colourful shots to submit to our 2021 photographic competition - City and Townscapes of Queensland.  Some excellent prizes are on offer including a “Members’ Choice” prize.

As President of RGSQ I have served in this role for the past four years (2017-2021). Under our Constitution no member shall serve more than four consecutive one-year terms as President and so I shall be stepping down at the forthcoming AGM, passing the baton onto the next President. If elected I will continue to serve as a Councillor for the coming year to assist in the transition. I am humbly and continually grateful to the Society’s membership for the opportunity to be President for two terms (my previous term was 2003-2005). It has been a tremendous privilege, honour, and pleasure. Over the past four years RGSQ has achieved some momentous milestones. I am so pleased to have participated in and, in some ways, helped to shape these achievements. So, if I may reflect on my term of office, here are some of the highlights.

The search for a new Society home and move from Milton:

in November 2017 I signed the sale of contract of our Milton premises. Over the next nine months Council investigated 28 premises across a range of suburbs. Nowhere was perfect, but we settled on Fortescue Street Spring Hill in August 2018 based largely on the advantages of a central location. After the process of refitting Gregory Place for our purposes, we invited members to the Open Day on 8^th April 2019 and had the official opening by the Governor, his Excellency Paul de Jersey AC on 18 July 2019.  

Changing our legal status from Letters Patent to a Company Limited by Guarantee: Our Society was set up under Letters Patent from Queen Victoria in 1885. Uncertainty surrounding governing and liability provisions applying to Councillors, employees and membership under this regime suggested that it was no longer an optimal legal structure. Bringing us into the 21^st Century, changing to a CLG provided an appropriate platform for the Society’s future. After a lengthy legal process, development of a new Constitution and By-laws and wide consultation with members this change was   approved at the September 2018 AGM. Importantly, we retained our status as a Royal Society and a not-for-profit charitable entity.

Safeguarding Collections: The Society has been accumulating artefacts, the library and map collections and our own archives since 1885. Extensive on-going work by Collections committee members with funding from the National Library of Australia’s Community Heritage Grants has enabled Significance Assessment and Preservation Needs Analysis for this important component of RGSQ.

Reviving Committees: I have enjoyed chairing the revival of two committees which had been inactive for a few years: Scientific Studies developing a project on Stradbroke Island and Publications organising photographic competitions and publishing an inaugural RGSQ calendar.

For the future, the Society’s finances are in the good hands of a dedicated and capable finance committee; there is much positive energy in the Treks & Activities Committee, Map Group and Young Geographers special interest groups. The AGC is powering ahead with a new coordinator and an enthusiastic committee moving the Competition into the digital age. Our capacity to present monthly lectures both via zoom and in-person at RGSQ premises, record and display on the RGSQ YouTube channel, now has the potential to increase RGSQ’s profile more widely. While over the past 18 months the challenges of COVID-19 have had major impacts on RGSQ, I have observed that the Society has prevailed with flexibility, adaptation, strength and the dedicated work of Council, members, and staff.

I sincerely thank all who have assisted me over the years on Council, member volunteers and office staff through some difficult times and some great achievements. I wish the incoming President every success in leading the Society with a collegiate and wise Council, supportive office staff and a wonderful membership.

With best wishes, Iraphne Childs, President

Dr Iraphne Childs, RGSQ President

Dear Members, I hope members in Southeast Queensland have managed to stay well and cope with the recent lockdown. At this writing we are, thankfully, out of lockdown, but remaining vigilant under some restrictions to control the re-emergence of the COVID Delta strain. Despite the challenges of holding the Olympics in Tokyo with its high rate of COVID cases, the event has been a success and at least it gave us something to keep us entertained during lockdown. How good were those Australian swimmers and athletes!

Geography reveals new vulnerability in Brisbane’s lockdown:

The recent Southeast Queensland lockdown has presented a new and largely unanticipated vulnerability due to the geography and demography of the 11 affected LGAs in Brisbane. Consider the list of the 10 private and State schools at the core of the outbreak:

• ·        Indooroopilly State High
• ·        Ironside State School
• ·        Brisbane Grammar School (Boys)
• ·        Brisbane Girls Grammar School
• ·        St Joseph's College Gregory Terrace
• ·        St Peters Lutheran College
• ·        St Aidan's Anglican Girls' School
• ·        Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie)
• ·        Pullenvale State School                                          
• ·        Brigidine College                                                                                  

This list includes most of the elite and wealthiest schools in Brisbane. Students attending these schools and their families were required to isolate and/or quarantine for up to two weeks, many obliged to remain in quarantine longer as more cases have emerged within those families. Many of these students and their friends in a wider circle of western Brisbane suburbs are from households where parents work in professional fields. According to the ABS 2016 Census the most common occupation in Greater Brisbane was Professionals 23%. This includes medical specialists and practitioners and healthcare workers. It was reported (ABC News) that more than 400 medical professionals were forced into isolation during the outbreak in Southeast Queensland due to their children’s attendance at the listed schools. This was a first for essential medical workers, who are normally allowed to work during lockdowns. This development placed a burden on our hospitals, especially in emergency departments, with non-isolating medical staff having to pick up the extra workload. 

 At RGSQ:

• We successfully presented via zoom our monthly lecture by Martin Crotty Reimagining James Cook and Australian History on 3^rd August with 53 registrants including 12 non-members. So, this was indeed a popular topic.
• If you missed it catch it on RGSQ’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2WD4ARJhBDIiOxa3qndb4Q
• We have launched the 2021 photographic competition. This year’s theme is City and Townscapes of Queensland. See more details on page 4 of this Bulletin and on the website.
• Unfortunately, we had to postpone the Map Group’s much-anticipated Upper Brisbane Valley trip scheduled for 5-6 August due to the lockdown that week. We hope to re-schedule that trip and will keep registrants informed.

Keep checking the RGSQ website for updates on these and other Society events.

AGM and Council nominations

The RGSQ Annual General Meeting is on 19 October. If any member would like to nominate for the 2021-2022 Council, please email the Office at info@rgsq.org.au for a nomination form or to discuss a role on the Council please feel free to contact me at 0419 756 936.

 With best wishes, Iraphne Childs, President

References: ABC News 2/8/2021A COVID-19 Delta cluster is spreading across major Queensland schools. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-02/qld-covid-tracking-delta-outbreak-schools-students-cluster/100342818

ABS 2016 Census QuickStats Greater Brisbane.  Code 3GBRI (GCCSA) https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/3GBRI?opendocument

ABC News 4/8/2021Queensland's COVID-19 Delta outbreak forces hundreds of key healthcare workers into quarantine https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-04/qld-covid-doctors-in-home-quarantine-affected-by-school-cluster/100345542

by Steve Turton

A small group of RGSQ Sunshine Coast members braved the sunny but cool conditions to enjoy a forest walk and picnic at Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve near Maleny. The forest walk was led by Professor Steve Turton, convenor of the RGSQ Sunshine Coast group. Steve gave a short field lecture, starting with the break-up of Gondwanaland 45 million years ago through to the present. This included a brief overview of the widespread volcanic activity that affected the area from 30-22 million years, which has shaped the modern landscape including the formation of the Glasshouse Mountains. The scenic reserve is 55 ha in size and provides an exceptional example of the complex sub-tropical rainforest that once covered the rich basalt soils of the Blackall Range, prior to European colonisation of the Sunshine Coast hinterland. The forest contains a diverse array of flora and fauna, many with ancient Gondwanan origins.

RGSQ group, Mary Cairncross scenic reserve, 20 June 2021; image courtesy of Ralph Carlisle.

After enjoying the forest walk and hearing interesting observations from bird watchers in the group, members gathered for a picnic winter solstice lunch, having been joined by the Society’s president, Iraphne Childs, and Ralph Carlisle. Discussions were held about future activities for local members, including occasional guest lectures, other interesting site visits on the Sunshine Coast and a possible joint excursion with the Brisbane members.

By Iraphne Childs

Dear Members, I hope you are managing to keep well during the colder weather. Although we are now in winter and Brisbane recently experienced a cold snap, the winter solstice has passed, so we can soon look forward to days getting longer again.

Celebrating the Winter Solstice: the solstices are the two times each year when the tilt in Earth's axis lines up most with the direction of the Sun, creating the maximum difference between daylight and night-time hours. The winter solstice is the day of the year that has the least daylight hours, the darkest and shortest day of the year. In 2021 the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere occurred on Monday, June 21. Across Australia various communities mark the winter solstice with feasting and ceremony.

Hobart’s DARK MOFO festival delves into centuries-old winter solstice rituals, including a mid-winter feast and colourful parade at the Hobart waterfront. The annual Hobart nude Solstice Swim usually has more than 1000 people dropping their clothes and inhibitions to welcome back the light after the longest, coldest night in the nation. Brrrr!! In Brisbane, the Northey Street city Farm had a Winter Solstice festival on 19 June 2021 with a bonfire, solstice ceremony, lantern parade, music, dance and lots of food.

Geographical conferences: The Institute of Australian Geographers & New Zealand Geographical Society (IAG/NZCS) combined conference is in Sydney 6–9 July 2021. The conference theme, Remembering, Reimagining Geography, considers how geography evolved, its influences on the human world and the contribution the discipline can make to more just and sustainable futures.

The Geography Teachers Association conference (GTAQ) will be held at the QUT Kelvin Grove campus in Brisbane on 31 July; conference theme is Visible Geography.

At RGSQ in July we present a very important public lecture Bushfire - an Intensifying Risk for Queensland by Lee Johnson AFSM FIFireE Commissioner (Ret) QFES on 6 July. Hope you can attend either in-person or via zoom. To register, visit https://rgsq.org.au/event-4343673.

TAAC’s Christmas in July in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland on 13 July is already fully booked out. A reminder that our trips and activities are popular so keep an eye out on the website for events that you may wish to join.
The 2021 AGM will be on 19th October. I hope that we will be able to hold this important meeting at our premises this year, rather than by zoom. Although still months away, I invite members to consider nominating for the Society’s Council. This is my 4th consecutive year as President and under our Constitution the limit is a maximum of four (4) consecutive one-year terms to serve in this role. So, the position of President will be vacant at the October AGM. Please contact me at i.childs@uq.edu.au if you would like any further information on any of these roles.

Enjoy the Brisbane winter!
Best wishes, Iraphne Childs, President

References
Geoscience Australia. Summer and Winter Solstice. https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/astronomical/summer-and-winter-solstice
BOM Solstices and equinoxes: the reasons for the seasons, 21 June 2018 http://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/1762/solstices-and-equinoxes-the-reasons-for-the-seasons/

Northey Street City Farm (2021) https://www.nscf.org.au/solstice-festivals
Dark Mofo 2021 https://tasmania.events/event/13161855-a/dark-mofo-2021#gallery-1

Image sources:
Solar diagram: Media BOM, 2018; Dark Mofo: Dark Mofo 2021

Contributed by Peter Griggs, RGSQ member

When it comes to finding their way today, motorists can rely on GPS Navigators or GPS on smartphones. No such devices, however, existed when Queenslanders started acquiring automobiles in the 1900s.

Recently, as part of research I am undertaking on the environmental history of South-East Queensland, I looked at Yates & Jones’ roadatlas published in 1913. Yates & Jones were a Brisbane firm of surveyors anddraftsmen located in George Street. Unfortunately, the book did not have any information that would assist my research. However, I was intrigued by the book.After some additional research, I have concluded that this publication is probably the earliest road atlas for Queensland. I could find no other earlier road atlas for the state.

The front cover of the 1913 Yates & Jones’ road atlas.

The publication has 47 regional maps showing the main roads throughout different parts of Queensland. The maps identify the “good roads”,and details assess the status of river and creek crossings. Accompanying each map is one or two pages of information about the region’s main industries, the population of the main settlements, the nature of the country being traversed and tips and facilities for travellers. The publication, however, is not entirely like a modern road atlas.Unusually, the first part of the atlas reads like a handbook for settlers or new immigrants to Queensland, containing information on the State’s land legislation, timber regulations and income tax rates. In addition, there are first aid hints, mechanical hints for motorists and details on the cost of tram and cab fares in Brisbane. Clearly, part of the cost of the atlas was offset by advertisements by Brisbane firms.

The publication of the road atlas was considered worthy enough for at least one Brisbane newspaper to run an article about its release.The un-named journalist who wrote the article concluded that it was “a valuable publication” and that “the reliability of the information given cannot be doubted”. It took five years to prepare and was based upon the experience of the firm’s surveyors throughout the state. Interested members can check it out at the State Library of Queensland.

One of the regional road maps from the 1913 Yates & Jones’ Road atlas.

Sources: Yates & Jones, The roads of Queensland (Brisbane: Yates & Jones, 1913) Telegraph (Brisbane), July 25, 1913, p. 3. 

By Ian Stehbens, RGSQ member

When Lilia Darii asked me for a short article on Geography and Easter, I was both surprised and stimulated. Never before has anyone asked such a question of me, neither from my network of fellow geographers nor anyone from the fellowship of Christian believers. But Lilia’s request excited me because of its uniqueness, freshness, and significance. There is much that emerges from the intersection of the disciplines of Geography and Biblical scholarship, and it is a two-way street. Here, I define Easter as the events involving the passion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians call Jesus Christ as an outcome of these ‘Easter Events’.

Geography (geology, culture, migration, geopolitics) informs the Easter Story

The Easter events occur at Jerusalem, where cultures are in collision: occupying Roman forces and Hebrew religious tradition. The Hebrew/Jewish tradition is based on the worship of the God who sets slaves free from oppression in Egypt and that tradition was celebrated culminating in the Passover Meal. It was eaten on the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion. From across the eastern Roman Empire at that time, the Jewish Diaspora as well as former slaves from many lands and cultures were making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in gratefulness for their freedom. The resultant great gathering demand the oversight of the Roman Governor of Judea who came from Tiberias in Galilee. The puppet King Herod Antipas and the resident High Priest also came to Jerusalem. These competing authorities generated an ambivalence of authority. Jesus and his disciples were also in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. When Jesus is arrested and brought before the authorities it was the Jewish religious authorities who initiated his arrest and trial. When they reached consensus, they handed Jesus over to Roman authority, and he was tried on different grounds by Governor Pilate. Without conviction, he was taken outside the city wall to the vicinity of Golgotha and crucified.

The Geology of Jerusalem is Cretaceous limestone (Nezer formation) overlain by formations of chalk and chert to the immediate east of the city but, immediately to the west, the underlying Shivta and Weradim formations of limestone with some dolomite are encountered. Outside the walls of the city, a series of old quarries are found from which the stone to build the walls was extracted. Golgotha (The Place of the Skull) is a feature of this karst landscape and because of caves its external appearance gives rise to its descriptive name. Jesus was not crucified on a hill but rather in an old quarry cum rubbish dump. While Golgotha is a hill in the background, the “hill of Calvary”, referred to in Christian story and hymns, is the Hebrew traditional understanding of Jerusalem being a city built on a hill. Thus, the traditional images of a hill with three crosses upon it is quite misleading!

Jerusalem is on a plateau 600-700M asl. The karst geology gives rise to the cultural tradition of burial in caves or crypts. The new tomb in which Jesus’ body was placed has a cut limestone rock rolled in place to seal the tomb.

The Jerusalem region is tectonically active, so it is little surprise that an earthquake is recorded as having occurred the day of his crucifixion. The Gospel of Mark, written in Rome, where again the geology is limestone, makes significant comment on the limestone caves and sarcophaguses both in the Easter narrative and in Chapter 5, where the tension between Roman authority and Jewish opposition is raised and Jesus is caught in the intersection, exercising healing, and restoring authority. All this resonated with the initial readers of Mark’s Gospel who were meeting in the underground catacombs among the sarcophaguses in Rome, whilst experiencing Nero’s torture and persecution, decades later.

Geography is used by the Gospel Writers to express the drama in the story

Mark has an extraordinarily strong and clear geographical construct which is dialectical and purposeful. From Chapter 1-8, the narrative is set in Galilee where Jesus is revealed as Son of Man (100% human), calls disciples and as they exercise ministry together, Jesus’ authority and purpose are demonstrated. The Galilean section climaxes in the Transfiguration as Jesus is identified as Son of God (100% divine).  At this point the disciples are told that this now means going to Jerusalem (8:31, 9:31, and 10:33) where betrayal, condemnation by national authorities then suffering, flogging, death at the hands of the occupying power will occur (and all this will be followed by resurrection).

The disciples resist this proposed journey and reveal their inadequate understanding of the role of the Messiah/Christ. He cannot suffer such a fate. They do not want to go to Jerusalem. For the rest of the Gospel of Mark (Chapter 8-16) the geography shifts towards and into Jerusalem. There Jesus experiences, at the point of his deepest tribulation, a coronation on a cross.

Luke’s Gospel is written in the Greco-Roman world, distant from Jerusalem. Way below Jerusalem, deep in the rift valley is Jericho - a place despised by the Jewish people through their history, was being cursed by Joshua in the earliest pre-Jerusalem history. But in Luke’s geo-theological construct it becomes the place of revealing the thrust of Jesus’ ministry: the blind see, the despised are invited into fellowship, the rejected and wounded are responded to with pity and active compassion, enemies are treated as friends. Joshua’s curse (Joshua 6:26) is abolished at the cost of God’s Son, whose work is to be completed by his followers.

Emmaus, down the Roman Road of oppression, identified with the camp of the occupying military forces, becomes the place where the resurrected Jesus enters and is recognized. With haste, those who recognize him return at once to Jerusalem to declare to the gathered group of disciples that Jesus was recognized by them when he broke bread. Then Jesus himself stood among this assembly greeting them with “Peace be with you”. The scourged Emmaus and the cursed Jericho both physically in the low country, one to the east, the other to the west, are thus raised up by grace, whilst the Holy City potentially faces destruction by Roman forces. Luke thus answers the question, ‘Is the power of grace, the power of Jesus Christ, greater than the power of Rome and greater than an ancient curse?’ The geographical constructs of both these gospels, as examples, are designed to intentionally carry the power of the message the writers seek to deliver.

Easter generates a geographical dispersal which becomes a missionary movement

Dr Luke outlines the dispersal of the gospel message in his second work, The Acts of the Apostles. Easter (the encounters with the risen Jesus) changed lives dramatically. Early churches formed, people were dispersed as refugees from persecution, and people moving about the Empire communicated the message and their witness from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. Luke himself is part of the movement, which he outlines as he follows St Paul and others from Jerusalem to Rome. These geographical advances were initiated by Jesus: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” The movement of the Christian faith and the establishment of the church very quickly moved north through Asia Minor, Galatia and to St Petersburg. Similarly, St Thomas took the gospel to India where it has been continuously shared and celebrated ever since. One does not need much time in Tonga to recognize that the gospel has spread to and taken root in the social and economic fabric of that kingdom at the end of the earth!

Easter’s central message has been received in many cultures around the globe. Its celebration and application have been contextualised in each culture resulting in spatially variant forms.  

Easter impacts the believer resulting in changed values and behaviours

Personally, Easter has impacted my life.  As a geographer my vocation has required me to create and lead therapeutic communities in Australia. Systems thinking and spatial analysis enabled me to develop the art of mapping conflicts and wars in the South Pacific, South East Asia, and East Africa so that communities and nations could make peace, reconcile, and build sustainable just peace. My faith compelled me to contribute to the development of geographical curricula in social geography (Settlement Patterns and Processes), inquiry (Australian Geographical Inquiries) and environmental education. My Easter-formed values and my geographical formation inform each other, as I advocate for environmental management of special landscapes. I am just one disciple among millions who continue to demonstrate the relationships between geography and Easter. Peace be with you.

Map courtesy of Ian Stehbens.

By Prof Patrick Nunn

Patrick Nunn is Professor of Geography at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Patrick is a member of RGSQ and of the Society’s Scientific Studies Committee.

For decades, communities in the Pacific Islands have been building seawalls along eroding coasts to try to halt erosion. This tendency has been supported by aid donors like Australia who often regard it as self-evident that these kinds of hard-engineered solutions should ‘work’ on islands just as they apparently do at home. New research by Professor Patrick Nunn and two colleagues from France suggests this is wrong – and that building seawalls along small-island coasts is neither an effective nor a sustainable solution.

Many seawalls in iconic places (like capital cities) on small islands are donor-funded and donor-maintained. The maintenance gives the illusion of effectiveness and so these seawalls are emulated by rural communities across the Pacific and on islands elsewhere. In rural locations, seawall construction is often funding-dependent. There are many examples where seawalls are built only along the most severely eroded parts of the coastline but the sea at high tide simply comes around its ends and floods the land just like it did before (Photo 1); the seawall is useless. Many rural seawalls collapse after a year or two and, lacking funds for rebuilding, often remain in a state of disrepair (Photo 2). The Pacific Islands are said to be “littered with the remains of collapsed seawalls”, a similar situation to that on Caribbean and Indian Ocean islands. Seawalls are short-term adaptation options for a long-term stressor. One wonders whether it would be more sustainable right now if small-island nations were encouraged to focus on the relocation of vulnerable populations to less vulnerable locations … rather than building expensive and labour-demanding solutions like seawalls that do not last.

Photo 1.

The seawall at Nasauvuki Village, Moturiki Island, Fiji – the water goes around its ends every time the tide is high. And seawall construction has greatly damaged the nearshore marine ecosystems, meaning Nasauvuki residents can no longer find shellfish and other foods there.

Photo 2. 

At Navunievu Village, Bua, Fiji, shoreline erosion began to be a problem in the 1970s, so the first seawall was built. After this collapsed, erosion continued, so a second seawall was built in the 1990s, which also collapsed. Today the rising seas are eating away at (and regularly inundating) the coastal plain.

Navunievu residents have responded by making a rule that every new dwelling house built in the village should be built upslope, something that will see the community move upwards over the next few decades – a fine example of autonomous adaptation.

Photos courtesy of Patrick Nunn.

Reference:

Nunn, P.D., Klöck, C. and Duvat, V. 2021. Seawalls as maladaptations along island coasts. Ocean and Coastal Management, 205: 105554