Cambridge Coastcare protects and enhances the recreational, educational and environmental values of the 4.5 kms or so of pristine coastline within the Town of Cambridge (ToC) – about 53 hectares of coastal bushland reserve. Back in the 1960s this wasn’t the case, and the beachfront area was used and abused by all and sundry as a matter of course. In 1971 the Environmental Protection Authority was established, and the ToC came into being in 1994. Five years later Cambridge Coastcare (CC) was founded, and has recently celebrated 25 years of volunteering in the area. Meg Anklesaria has been intimately involved with this, and she came along to tell us how the 70 to 80 volunteers spend their time and explained the measures that are taken to preserve our stretch of coastline. The level of monitoring is extremely sophisticated and includes drones and monitoring flights, and this helps with the planning of defensive strategies which will keep the coastline in good shape. Meg explained what has happened over the years, such as Cyclone Alby in 1978 right through to severe storms in 2020 which caused a lot of erosion around the Floreat Surf Life Saving Club. Once dune faces are eroded, they won’t come back. Between 2018 and 2022 the dunes lost about 143 cubic metres of sand. CC has spent a lot of time weeding, installing fencing and coir matting to hold plants in place, and during 2023 volunteers put in 629 pro bono hours of work. Each local native seedling that is planted receives protection and water until it is well established. What an amazing job the Coastcare does!