Australia's longest dune system stretches 190 kilometres from the mouth of the Murray River to South Australia's south-east, part of the thin strip of coastline that separates the wetlands of the Coorong from the crashing waves of the Southern Ocean.
"In 1978, when I drove along here you had 100 metres more of beach and dunes with a 60m-wide foredune. Entirely gone now," he said. "In the last 10 years or less, a new dune field has developed that's gone up to 200m wide across the older dune system and continuing to expand landwards," Professor Hesp said, adding that the erosion sites were also becoming wider.Each dry season thousands of tourists flock to Darwin's Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, but this year wet season tides and waves have washed away half the beach, restricting access.
It is divided into the North and South lagoons at its narrowest place and was designated as a Ramsar-listed wetland of international importance in 1985. "Slow change we can all deal with. We have dealt with it for thousands of years. Fast change we're not evolved to deal with."