'It looks like we’ve lost our beach'
A Council review found erosion in 2025 was a regional phenomenon, not caused by the seawall, but North Beach locals remain worried they'll end up with a 'rock paradise'
As the saying goes, every picture tells a story.
Today, The Illawarra Flame presents two sets of photographs taken five days apart at North Wollongong Beach.
We also present a report, recently commissioned by Wollongong City Council, which absolves the newly constructed seawall – now known as Emma McKeon Promenade – of any blame for the regular mess at this city’s most popular beach.
The first pictures (above) show a mass of rocks and pebbles in front of the surf club that made one large section of the beach almost unusable for several days. Lifeguards had to place the red and yellow flags further south in an area where sand was still visible for swimmers.
The second pictures show a mountain of seaweed, about 40cm deep in places, which washed up on the tide and hung around for days.
A North Gong Beach regular, lawyer Mark McDonald doesn’t swallow Council’s explanation that the dramatic changes to the beach in the past two years have just happened to coincide with the construction of the new seawall and steps, which have eaten into a section of the beach.
Mark also shares the concerns of Balgownie geotechnical engineer Kourosh Kianfar, who told The Illawarra Flame earlier this year that he believed the long-term future viability of the beach has been compromised by the works already undertaken, with a greater threat in works to come when the seawall is extended another 90 metres.
Kourosh estimates the new seawall will extend close to 10 metres onto the existing sandy beach and, when complete, about 1000 square metres of beach will be sacrificed to make way for the extended wall.
“I believe the opportunity should have been taken to build a stronger wall in the current location to preserve as much of the beach as possible for the public to use,” Kourosh said.
'A rock infestation'
Inspecting the latest seaweed pile-up, Mark McDonald said his greatest fear was that Wollongong’s most famous beach could be lost forever unless there was careful analysis of the impacts of the seawall construction.
“I grew up on this beach and it was never anything like this,” Mark said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
He said other regulars at the beach have come to the same conclusion.
“Once this construction was done we suddenly got a rock infestation, and I’ve never seen seaweed piled up like this. Everyone is of the same view: we’re just staggered that this is happening to this beach.
“We have a great fear about what is going to happen to the rest of the beach when the new seawall is built and extended out to the beach nine metres. We don’t have a beach any more. It looks like we’ve lost our beach.”
Mark said late last year Council was provided with the expert opinion of local geotechnical engineer Kourosh Kianfar.
“He’s done seawalls elsewhere in the world and he gave Council an opinion about what the likely cause of this was, and Council told us they reviewed it and they came back and said no; nothing to see here. Everything’s fine.”
Review says seawall 'performing as intended'
Wollongong City Council confirmed that, after receiving complaints, it did have the stage two seawall decision reviewed by Sydney-based coastal engineering consultants Baird Australia. As part of the review, the consultants studied how well the first-stage wall had performed.
Their report to Council, dated 4 December 2025, contained images of the beach substantially covered in rocks in October 2025 and then clear again one month later.
The consultant’s brief was to ascertain whether the stage one seawall had impacted adjacent beach areas, particularly under storm and recovery cycles.
“Significant sand loss and occasional exposure of the scour protection system were observed in 2025,” the report said. “However, these conditions reflect natural coastal processes rather than contributions from the seawall itself.
“This review confirms that the existing seawall is performing as intended, providing resilient protection to the Surf Club and North Beach foreshore. Proposed improvements for stage two aim to address identified issues, enhance public safety, and maintain the structural integrity and amenity of the coastal protection system.
“Observed beach erosion in 2025 was a regional phenomenon, not caused by the seawall, reinforcing the suitability of the composite design approach for stage two.”
Based on these findings, Council is pushing ahead with the $10.5 million extension of the seawall, which is due to be completed midway through 2027.
For his part, Mark McDonald is convinced North Beach will never be the same.
'A no-go zone'
“This beach is iconic on this coast and they’re turning it into a no-go zone in my view," Mark said.
“We’re going to end up with a complete rock paradise. I now have to wear reef shoes when I enter the water.
“If this continues to play out the way that it has, and as much as we love the tiered seating which looks great, unfortunately it will have a devastating impact on the beach.”
