When John Hatch stood on Hinchcliffe Hill in May 2025, he was shocked by what he saw.

“I’d heard there was erosion happening near the Lancelin Hotel,” Hatch recalls. “So I returned to one of my old photo monitoring sites — the same spot I’d used since 2020 for the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council.”

What he found was striking. Comparing his latest image with a photo taken five years earlier, he estimated that the frontal dunes had retreated by about 25 metres.

“It was astonishing,” he says. “This particular area — north and south of Hinchcliffe Hill — had been stable for many years. And this wasn’t storm-driven erosion. It was just ongoing, quiet loss.”

Unlike many other monitoring sites Hatch had set up along the Lancelin foreshore — which were destroyed by natural processes over time — this one provided a rare fixed vantage point. “That’s what makes these two photos so valuable,” he says. “They’re incredibly accurate.”

From his observations, the key issue is not natural forces alone but where and how infrastructure has been built into the coastal zone.

In Hatch’s view, erosion is most severe where human development has pushed into dynamic coastal systems — paved paths, grassed recreation areas, and buildings constructed on foredunes that once shifted and regenerated freely.

“The public doesn’t want to give up these spaces,” Hatch says. “But the truth is, if we don’t allow the foredunes to function and rebuild, we’re setting ourselves up for more serious erosion issues down the track.”

He advocates for preserving natural dune systems rather than relying on hard engineering.

“I’m not talking about brick walls and sandbags,” he explains. “I’m talking about protecting and managing the dunes themselves. They’re what keep Lancelin’s beaches natural and beautiful — and they’re the reason people love this place.”

Story by WACMN
Photo credit John Hatch