Lancelin Sands Hotel owner Glen Trebilcock forced to take own action as beach erosion threatens livelihood

The owner of the Lancelin Sands Hotel has been forced to take matters into his own hands to protect his pub from rapidly escalating erosion.

Glen Trebilcock woke on Tuesday to find sand stockpiled in 2025 to bolster the coast’s defence against erosion had been washed away.

It left the shoreline a mere 15m from the iconic pub after several nights of damaging high tides.

Frustrated by a lack of immediate action, Mr Trebilcock resorted to taking matters into his own hands by getting a small front-end loader to move sand to reinforce the area.

“I don’t want to wake up tomorrow morning and find that the front of my restaurant has ended up in the water,” he said. “It’s definitely a possibility.

“We lost 35m last year, the State Government turned around and provided a temporary funding of $150k that got utilised to do the sand nourishment (replacement) and that hasn’t really worked long term.

“It held up over the summer period but here we are now.

“We haven’t even started coming into winter yet and already there’s some serious, significant damage.”

Sand replacement works at the beach were completed by the Shire of Gingin in September.

In February, the shire voted to start a design process for a temporary rock-bag wall solution.

“Once the coastline reaches past a trigger profile, sand nourishment can be reinstated to restore capacity of the sandy buffer,” Gingin shire president Linda Balcombe said.

“This trigger profile, at this stage, has not yet been reached.”

Nationals leader Shane Love said the situation was dire.

“Just 12 months ago, a public footpath and a vegetated sand dune stood between the hotel and the sea. Today, both are gone,” he said.

“In October last year, 900 cubic metres of rehabilitation sand was placed along this stretch of coast to fix the problem.

“Every single cube has now been washed away.”

Mr Trebilcock said action was needed immediately.

“Something needs to be done and we can’t turn around and wait for reports to come through and the something could happen. This is immediate,” he said.

“It’s not something that needs to be done in six months. It’s something that needs to be rectified now.”

A State Government spokesperson said the shire could apply for more funding.

“The emergency sand nourishment works were funded by the State Government to provide short-term resilience to erosion pressures, enabling the shire to continue to engage with the community and stakeholders on planning for longer-term coastal adaption,” they said.

“DTMI continues to work closely with the shire on coastal management at Lancelin, recognising the need for a joint approach to coastal hazard management at the site.”