Mira Mar landslip damage continues as homes demolished, Anzac Road home swamped with sand

Two Mira Mar homes torn apart by a slow-moving landslip have been demolished, as a wave of mud destroys the retaining wall of a home which residents have been trying to save for more than six months. Crews have this month been demolishing two homes on Sleeman Avenue that were evacuated in October, after the road cracked and properties were slowly pulled down the hill. Demolition orders came on the back of recommendations made by a WA Government-commissioned geotechnical report in December. Homeowners advised the City of Albany in February they would not undertake the demolition themselves. At the bottom of the landslip on Anzac Road, residents have been fighting to push dirt, mud and huge boulders away from the homes they are still living in. Anzac Rd resident Alan Smith has been using an excavator, out of his own pocket, to dig trenches around two homes, but he was issued a notice by the City on April 26 to stop the excavation or risk a fine. Earlier this month, City of Albany chief executive Andrew Sharpe said any works at the base of the landslip would likely accelerate the movement and “significantly delay” the scheduled demolition works. “Geotechnical surveying of the landslip cannot occur until these properties are demolished,” Mr Sharpe said. Mr Smith said the City retracted the ban on May 11, but dirt came crashing through his retaining wall days later. “The demolition people have gone through and knocked the two buildings down and they are carting the material away but in doing so, the vibration is creeping all the way down the hill, plus the fact that we have had rain which has absolutely made this site a quagmire,” he said. Mr Smith said he had received some help from neighbours but with heavy rains set to continue the landslip would pose an even greater risk to their homes. “There is still moving material coming down to our houses,” he said. “We pulled what we thought was enough to take away but the rocks are still moving. So we need to get rock breakers in to break it up.” Residents of five homes are in the process of launching legal action against the City and Water Corporation over the cause of the slip.