A HUGE section of six-metre high cliff near the end of Daveys Bay Road, Mt Eliza, crashed onto the beach earlier this month.
Mornington Peninsula Shire has erected two 'dangerous cliffs' warning signs and is preparing to relocate a walking track that now runs dangerously close to the new edge.
The landslip, 30 metres long by 2-3 metres wide, is the latest of a series in the region that have occurred over winter and in particular in August.
Coastal landslips have also occurred at Gunyong Creek, the boundary between the Ansett land and Norman Lodge estate in the green wedge between Mt Eliza and Mornington, and a few hundred metres further south-west on Sunnyside Beach North between Norman Lodge and the Pinecliff racehorse property owned by Jonathan Munz.
Greater Melbourne has received above-average rainfall in August with Melbourne Water's three gauges in the region - Frankston North, Devilbend Reservoir near Moorooduc and Arthurs Seat - receiving double or more rain than last August.
The shire council and Department of Sustainability and Environment, for whom the shire manages the foreshore, are cautious about saying why the landslips have occurred but environmentalists say the long drought and heavy August rain have played a part.
Port Phillip Baykeeper Neil Blake, who inspected the Mt Eliza cliff on August 7 three days after it collapsed, said an earth tremor with its epicentre in the middle of Port Phillip Bay on March 31 and one near Pearcedale a week before may have contributed to the instability.
"The cliff fall site is right on top of Selwyn Fault, the main fault line under the peninsula that runs from Cape Schanck to Dandenong South," Mr Blake said.
"This, combined with the long drought, recent rain and the high content of clay in the cliff, may have caused the collapse."
Senior shire engineer John Ault-Connell said the Daveys Bay slip was about 30 metres long. "A large section has collapsed and the clifftop path is intact, but will have to be moved back from the cliff face or totally relocated away from the area."
He said a geotechnical investigation would be undertaken and DSE was also inspecting the site.
Mr Ault-Connell said the landslip at Gunyong Creek was due to saturated ground. Further investigation would be carried out before the shire decided what to do, but The Independent believes the area is likely to be fenced off.
It has been a popular place for fossil hunters over many years and was where Professor Tim Flannery, Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and climate change activist, collected fossils in the early 1970s.
Mr Ault-Connell said erosion at Sunnyside Beach North was due to the sea.
"It's the kind of erosion that is common in a lot of coastal areas of the shire. We'll also investigate this before deciding how to proceed."
# The Esplanade at Mt Martha near Safety Beach remains closed to traffic after a landslip undermined the road on August 11. VicRoads said it would be closed for at least seven weeks while investigations and road repairs were carried out.
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