Sitting on the edge of his local jetty, seven-year-old Jye Gleghorn’s feet dangle above hard sand.
But he imagines an ocean beneath him.
Locals are sad to see the Port Gregory jetty in such a state. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
It is a place where he can connect to his late father, Beau, who once sat on the same wooden planks at Port Gregory, 527 kilometres north of Perth along Western Australia’s Mid West coast.
“My dad used to ride his bike off [the jetty] and do front flips and back flips, and the jump was right here,” he said, patting the edge of the jetty,” Jye said.
“They used to [swim] under the jetty. Sometimes they’d get the crabs.”
When Jye’s dad was alive, the jetty was surrounded by water and filled with marine life.
Once a beloved spot for both locals and tourists, the Port Gregory jetty holds fond memories for many. (Supplied: Clara Harris)
Now, more and more sand billows across its wooden planks every day, slowly but surely marooning what was once a treasured place of work and play for the small fishing town.
Jye’s great-aunt, Nat Schultz, wants him to be able to share the childhood experiences of her nephew and other local children who grew up “jetty jumping”.
Jye Gleghorn loved hearing stories of his dad leaping off the Port Gregory jetty back when he was Jye’s age. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
“Port Gregory was his favourite place. He used to love coming up here fishing, going out on the boat, netting — he just loved Port Gregory,” Ms Schultz said.
“At night-time in summer and over the Easter break, this jetty would be full of people.
“The kids would walk down at night-time, it was a hangout place, they loved it. It was their happy place to be able to come, and now they can’t do that anymore.”
Nat Schultz is advocating for the repair of the Port Gregory Jetty. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
Just three weeks after his father died, Jye also lost his mother.
“Jye has had a massive tragedy in his life. I want his mental health to be happy,” Ms Schultz said.
“This is where the memories of his dad come from, and we talk about Beau and Sarah all the time.”
Jye Gleghorn associates the jetty closely with his parents. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
A growing beach
In a region where the threat of the ocean swallowing buildings and infrastructure looms as a multi-million-dollar issue, Port Gregory faces the opposite challenge.
Its beach is growing, with sand now surrounding the jetty and blanketing beach shelters.
Locals, like lobster fisher Colin Suckling, have had enough.
Colin Suckling has been calling on the state government to do something about the Port Gregory jetty for years. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
“It’s embarrassing to have a jetty that people can’t walk out and actually walk over water,” he said.
“We just want our jetty back — to be able to use it.
“It’s very frustrating for the locals because my children enjoyed fishing and swimming and jumping off the jetty. My grandchildren can’t.”
A moment frozen in time of when the jetty was well used. (Supplied: Clara Harris)
Frustration grows with sand
It has been 14 years since commercial fishers like Mr Suckling and his mate Greg Horsman have been able to tie up to the jetty to unload their catches.
Cray fishers now have to bring their catch in by dinghy and transfer it to the truck. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
Instead, the lobster fishers are forced to use dinghies to ferry catch and bait to and from their boats and the beach.
“This jetty had more than 2 metres of water around it, back to approximately halfway along the first leg of the jetty,” Mr Horsman said.
With the jetty no longer accessible, cray fishers load and unload their catch and supplies by dinghy. (ABC Landline: Jo Prendergast)
“It was used by between five and seven boats most of the year, plus we had a few boats that had come in to get fuel or seek shelter.”
The pair was frustrated with the WA government, which owned the jetty, for not acting on their calls for help.
“It’s ridiculous. You can’t leave it as it is. They [should] either remove it or fix it,” Mr Horsman said.
“The longer it goes, the more costly it’s going to become. So it should have been looked at possibly 10 years ago, rather than now.”
While some beaches are eroding, the bay at Port Gregory has been filling up with sand. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
More than a toilet stop
Once a key fishing port along the coast north of Perth, Port Gregory is now a much smaller village.
The pink lake on the outskirts of town attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Often, they visit Port Gregory as a toilet stop.
The iconic pink lake near Port Gregory draws crowds of international visitors all year round. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
Ms Schultz said the government needed to consider the volume of travellers who visited the pink lake.
“We do have tourism here; we had 450,000 tourists through,” she said.
“They all get out and come for a wander, but they wander onto a weeded-up boardwalk at the moment.”
Visitors, especially from China, are drawn to the pink lake’s striking colour. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
In 2021, WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti promised to visit the jetty.
“To my knowledge … she hasn’t been here,” Mr Suckling said.
The minister was unavailable to speak to the ABC and referred questions about the jetty to the Department of Transport.
Though Port Gregory is a small coastal town, it neighbours a world-famous attraction, the pink lake. (ABC Landline: Chris Lewis)
A spokesperson said sedimentation at Port Gregory had been monitored since 2012, and the coastline was continually growing.
“Options such as dredging and a jetty extension have been considered, however, due to the rapid rate of siltation at Port Gregory, neither of these options is viable,” the statement said.
“There are no plans to upgrade the jetty at Port Gregory.”
