COASTAL erosion does not appear suddenly.
At Stockton the symptoms have crept slowly but relentlessly, and it's taken decades for governments to acknowledge that something is really wrong.
What has followed has been a merry-go-round of consultants' reports, expensive band-aid solutions and storm events that every few months strip more sand from the disappearing coastline.
The past week has been no different.
The security barriers designed to keep residents safe from sheer drop-offs along a more than 2-kilometre stretch of the beach continue to creep backwards.
In many parts beach access is blocked by temporary construction-style fencing, now reinforced along some sections of the beach by more temporary fencing a few metres further back, as the relentless erosion continues to eat away at the coastline.
New sections of star pickets and plastic mesh, or orange water-filled barriers, add to the war zone look of the beach increasingly held together by sand and rock bags, sea walls and concrete rubble.
There is no longer any protection in front of the Stockton caravan park or Corroba Oval after the frontal dunes were washed away.
With no clear timeline to get sand back on the beach, residents know the suburb's erosion and infrastructure losses will continue to grow.
The Newcastle Herald reported last month that work on a critical offshore sand nourishment plan to place an initial 2.4 million cubic metres of sand on the beach has been stalled due to a disagreement over who should be responsible for the project.
City of Newcastle has been at loggerheads with the NSW government for more than two years, unable to resolve a dispute over who should apply for a mining licence to extract the sand.
Council wants the state to take responsibility and the state, guided by Paul Toole's Deputy Premier's Stockton Beach Taskforce, wants council to do the job with assistance.
Frustrated residents have now turned their attention to organising another 'red line rally' on Sunday, July 17, along the Stockton breakwater to raise awareness of the worsening problem.
Stockton Community Group member and rally organiser Willow Forsyth said residents were calling on City of Newcastle and the NSW government to get together and fast-track a plan to save the beach.
"The visible state of the beach is terrible," Ms Forsyth said.
"We lost at least another metre this week in some places and it wasn't even a huge swell."
Council has erected temporary fencing behind existing temporary fencing as the erosion heads towards the tennis club and netball courts.
Ms Forsyth, a disaster management expert, described the state of the beach as "critical" and said the "invisible risk" of storm surge inundation was "very real".
Hunter residents are asked to wear red and join the rally at Stockton breakwater, in King St, from 10am on Sunday, July 17.
