The owners of a holiday home destroyed in a landslide at a Victorian tourism hotspot say they are grateful no one died in the emergency and have engaged lawyers.
Nick and Kellie Moran’s property at Penny Lane at McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula crashed down a hill shortly before 9 a.m. on Jan. 14.
It came just a week after the family escaped another slip at the $2 million property that pushed earth and trees up against their house, reaching almost as high as the gutter.
A council worker, aged in his 50s, suffered lower body injuries in the collapse on Tuesday while doing an inspection relating to the earlier slip.
“We are very grateful that nobody died,” the couple said in a statement.
“Our thoughts are for the injured Mornington Peninsula Shire employee who we understand is in a stable condition.”
The couple said their clifftop home had been impacted by a landslip at a property above theirs a week earlier.
“On that occasion, family members were in the house and fortunately no one was injured or killed,” they said.
“The subsequent slip from the same property is very significant.”
The couple have engaged a lawyer and said they would be working with their insurer.
“We will have a measured approach to working through this with all the relevant parties,” they said.
Prior to the collapse, Moran said his wife and daughter were “bloody lucky” to escape the earlier slip.
“[It] narrowly missed my daughter and wife let alone the stack of people we entertained there over the break,” he posted to LinkedIn on Monday.
“I know everyone goes through stuff and don’t necessarily get a positive outcome but on this occasion, I know how bloody lucky we are.”
Residents in surrounding homes are unable to return to their properties as safety assessments are carried out, with locals warned they would have to stay away until at least Wednesday night.
“Those investigations are ongoing, but there’s obviously unstable land, so we need to work out exactly what’s going on there,” Mornington Peninsula Mayor Anthony Marsh said.
“It’s devastating for the owners and it must be a huge concern for the close residents around.”
The residents’ access to their properties, most of which are holiday homes, will depend on results from geotechnical engineers’ inspection of the site.
University of Melbourne geomorphologist David Kennedy said building heavy structures such as houses on top of sea cliffs destabilised soil and could trigger slides.
“That can happen by putting weight on top of the cliff, it can also happen by building on the cliff face itself or even at the base of it,” he said.
“The debris supports it and once you remove it that starts to make things a lot more unstable.”
Other houses in the area had reportedly been deemed unsafe in the past year local resident Tanina Osborne said.
“I think that entire hill is going to have to be looked at,” she told AAP.
“It would be an engineer’s nightmare.”
Osborne said a water outlet near their daily swimming spot had been gushing into the bay three weeks earlier because of a water main issue on a road above the landside.
“That could have contributed as well, I don’t know,” she said.
“I’m not an expert, but you know that whole hill just has a lot going on.”
