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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 collapsing sand dune
- A girl suffered the collapse of a dune in Apollo Bay in Victoria
A father has applauded residents of the coastal town of Apollo Bay for rescuing his young daughter from under a dune after it collapsed on her.
Six-year-old Samba Brown was pulled from under the sand by half a dozen locals on Friday afternoon at Mother’s Beach in southwest Victoria.
Her father, Jordie Brown, said his daughter’s mother, Tiffany, was watching her youngest son, Hugh, when she noticed Samba was missing.
As a result of a recent storm that undermined the bank, a 2.5 meter high dune collapsed, completely burying it below.
When the locals found out, they began digging frantically until they managed to free her, but the girl still spent nearly five minutes trapped under the sand.
Samba Brown, 6, was rescued by at least six locals on Friday afternoon from under the sand at Mother’s Beach in south-west Victoria after an 8-foot dune collapsed on her.
Jordie Brown (pictured) has applauded locals in the seaside town of Apollo Bay, who managed to save their young daughter after a sand dune collapsed on her, burying her.
his father told him ABC Newsthe scariest part of the whole ordeal is that “nobody saw” it happen.
“She was asleep for four or five minutes…she hadn’t been able to breathe for a long time,” Brown said.
The young woman was taken to hospital with X-rays to assess any damage sustained to her lungs and spine in the incident.
He is now recovering at home.
Coastal erosion is one of the biggest, if not the most important, problems affecting the region, with nearly a quarter of Apollo Bay’s beaches affected by sand buildup in the last 50 years.
More than 30 percent of Mother’s Beach has suffered erosion.
Last year, the locals of Apollo Bay, fed up with seeing their beaches deteriorate, started a petition get the authorities to help stop the serious erosion in the area.
Alannah Batho, a local who started the petition, said her mother broke her leg on a local beach while trying to get out of the family’s beach box onto the sand below.
Coastal erosion is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, problems plaguing the region with nearly a quarter of Apollo Bay’s beaches affected by sand buildup in the last 50 years.
More than 30 percent of Mother’s Beach has suffered erosion. In recent times, thousands of cubic meters of sand from the Apollo Bay Harbor have been dumped onto Mother’s Beach in an attempt to counter the area’s natural erosion (pictured: Coastal erosion in the Apollo Bay area)
“Used to be a beautiful family swimming beach but is quickly becoming unsafe and nasty,” he wrote.
Deakin University associate professor Daniel Ierodiaconou said the dune collapse was a direct result of sand dumping at Mother’s Beach.
In recent times, thousands of cubic meters of sand from the port of Apollo Bay have washed onto the beach.
The thousands of cubic meters of sand dumped on the beaches of Apollo Bay are intended to counteract the natural erosion of the area.