SPOTLIGHT ON MIDWEST

Interview with resident of Geraldton, Charlie Doust.

How long have you lived in Geraldton?

Over 40 years.  I came here as a young man with my wife. She is dead now but here is home and it’s a great place to be.

What do you love about your coast?

I walk with my dog every day at Separation Point and I like being able to come down onto the sand, so close to my house and appreciate the fresh air and the space.

How has the coast in your local area changed in your life time?

We’ve lost so much of our sand dunes, especially at Point Moore where so much of the coast has washed away.  When I go walking with my dog, I notice so much of the dunes have been flattened and places where we used to have 100s of meters of sand between dunes and the ocean, now it’s just a narrow strip.  At Separation point, when I came here first with my wife, there was a roadway we drove done, a path on the other end of the beach.  

It got flooded and now it’s not there any more.

Why do you think these changes are happening?

I think there are a lot of changes in the weather and the climate.  I notice that we don’t get so much rain as we used to and then other times we have extreme flooding.  Areas that used to be fresh water, the salt water has come in and the trees have died.  I remember swimming in places that were freshwater and now it has all dried up.  There’s been salt encroachment and the ecosystem has been effected. 

I also think we’ve made some big mistakes about where we have built things.  We didn’t leave enough space for the dunes to figure themselves out and now we have the problem of trying to hold back the sea.  That is a battle that nobody is ever going to win.

What will help?

Well I think that we all need to remember that we are part of nature and it is part of us.  We have to respect that we are no more important than a tree or a bee.  We need to stop clearing the land because everything we do impacts something else.  It is all part of a big system.  On the beach, we need more bins, more respect, less throwing rubbish and remembering that we are just visitors for our time here, we have to leave something to pass onto the next generations.  

Interview & photos by Ailbhe Travers, WACMN.