Australians living beside some of the country's finest beaches will be allowed to fortify their beachfront homes against rising seas and storms, as climate change increasingly threatens the heavily-populated east coast.
Many Australians live within a short car-ride of the coast and are feeling the impact of more frequent storms blamed in part on global warming, prompting national soul-searching over whether to adopt a "retreat or defend" approach to beach living. Environmentalists fear widespread coastal defences could scar beaches and cause massive erosion, as the movement of sand is blocked by concrete and stone barriers.
But the government in New South Wales state, home to a third of the country's 22 million population, said it would override local planning and allow coastal fortification, with appropriate environmental safeguards.
"It's not just, 'I'll build a wall'," it'll protect me and I'll be right, mate," Simon Smith, the deputy director of the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Scientists say Australia is experiencing "accelerated climate change" because of its dry climate, resulting in more frequent storms, droughts and estimated average temperature rises of between 1.4˚C and 5.8˚C by 2100.
It is estimated that over 700,000 coastal properties in Australia are threatened by rising sea levels, with coastal flooding and erosion costing NSW €123 million a year.
The government said it would list 19 "hot spot" beaches where waterfront homes were at risk from rising sea levels, including several along Sydney's upmarket northern coast, where the popular television series Home and Away was largely filmed.
Property owners in those areas would be given more rights to construct sea walls and barriers, with the state government appointing itself as final judge over any barrier plans rejected by local councils.
The plan would also target the famous resort town of Byron Bay and the nearby international surfing mecca of Lennox Head, after legal wrangles between coastal homeowners and the council.