Dad praises locals for rescuing his six-year-old daughter after she was buried under a sand dune for five minutes
- Dad applauds locals for saving his daughter from sand dune collapse
- A young girl had a dune collapse on her in Apollo Bay in Victoria
A father has applauded quick-thinking locals of the coastal town of Apollo Bay for rescuing his young daughter from under a dune after it collapsed on her.
Samba Brown, six, was pulled from beneath the sand by half a dozen locals on Friday afternoon at Mother’s Beach in southwest Victoria.
Her dad, Jordie Brown, said his daughter’s mother Tiffany was watching their younger son Hugh when she realised Samba had disappeared.
As a result of a recent storm undercutting the bank, a 2.5-metre-high dune collapsed and buried her completely underneath.
When locals realised they started frantically digging until they managed to free her but the girl still spend almost five minutes trapped beneath the sand.
Samba Brown, 6, was rescued by at least six locals on Friday afternoon from beneath the sand at Mother’s Beach in southwest Victoria after a 2.5 metre dune collapsed on her
Jordie Brown (pictured) has applauded quick thinking locals of the coastal town of Apollo Bay who managed to save his young daughter after a sand dune collapsed on her, leaving her buried
Her father told ABC News, the scariest part of the whole ordeal is ‘no one saw’ it happen.
‘She was under for four or five minutes … she hadn’t been able to breathe for quite a long time,’ Mr Brown said.
The young girl was taken to hospital with x-rays done to assess any damage sustained to her lungs and spine in the incident
She is now recovering at home.
Coastal erosion is one of if not the biggest issues plaguing the region with almost a quarter of Apollo Bay’s beaches impacted by the build-up of sand in the past 50 years.
More than 30 per cent of Mother’s Beach has suffered erosion.
Last year Apollo Bay locals fed up with watching their beaches deteriorate, started a petition to get authorities to help halt the serious erosion in the area.
Alannah Batho, one local who started the petition, said her mother broke her leg at a local beach while attempting to step from the family’s beach box onto the sand below.
Coastal erosion is one of if not the biggest issues plaguing the region with almost a quarter of Apollo Bay’s beaches impacted by the build-up of sand in the past 50 years
More than 30 per cent of Mother’s Beach has suffered erosion. In recent times thousands of cubic metres of sand from the Apollo Bay harbour has been dumped onto Mother’s Beach in an attempt to counter natural erosion of the area (pictured: coastal erosion in Apollo Bay area)
‘It used to be a beautiful, family swimming beach but is quickly becoming unsafe and unenjoyable,’ she wrote.
Associate Professor at Deakin University, Daniel Ierodiaconou said the dune collapse was a direct result of sand dumping at Mother’s Beach.
In recent times thousands of cubic metres of sand from the Apollo Bay harbour has been dumped onto the beach.
The thousands of cubic metres of sand dumped on the beaches in Apollo Bay aims to counter the natural erosion in the area.
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