The long-term future of a small Southland community remains uncertain after heavy rain and swells accelerated erosion on the township’s coastal banks.

Southland District Mayor Rob Scott declared a state of emergency for the Bluecliffs area on Thursday morning.

The area is home to a hamlet of 17 houses at the mouth of the Waiau River, but Scott could provide little assurance about their future.

“We’ve got no certainty around what opening the mouth (of the river) is going to do and how long it’s going to last,” Scott told Local Democracy Reporting.

“We can’t keep repeating this work either, this is a one-off operation to buy time.

“There’s no guarantees around that long-term stability of the situation there.”

Jan and Darryl Pinn seated at their holiday home on Bluecliffs Beach Rd on Thursday afternoon. Darryl says he fears for those who call the place home on a permanent basis. Photo: Matthew Rosenberg/LDR

Darryl Pinn owned a holiday house on Bluecliffs Beach Rd with wife Jan and was worried for those who called the area home on a permanent basis.

“It’s got to be tough, when you’re lying in bed at night thinking ‘what’s going to be there in the morning? Or what’s not going to be there in the morning?’”

Jan said the couple had lost a large portion at the front of their property about ten years ago under similar circumstances, and property values had only gone down.

Bluecliffs property owner Chris Wood said he's trying to sell up in the small Southland township. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery/ODT.

Property owner Chris Wood, who was currently out of town, had plans to vacate the area for good.

“I’ve been trying to sell my house for the last four months. I’m trying to leave,” he said.

Another resident — who did not wish to be named — said the river bar was constantly moving, and the bank at the front of where he lived had eroded between four to five metres in the last week.

He said it was hard to encapsulate the general feeling of the community because there were “too many eccentric people”.

“You live here to be outside your normal society.

“You will never find two people that will agree with what the next step is going to be.”

Declaring the state of emergency was a precautionary measure that allowed Emergency Management Southland to respond to threats against life and property, the council said.

It also allowed the regional council to plan for opening the river bar.

Scott said it was a “volatile situation”, but one which the council was controlling to the best of its ability.

The river bar protects residents' properties against the pounding ocean. But it also cushions the Waiau River, which runs alongside the coastal bank, and has swollen following heavy rain this week. Photo: Matthew Rosenberg/LDR

It had come about on the back of more than 60ml of rain in Southland over the past few days, which had increased the flow of the Waiau River next to the residents’ homes.

No date had been given for opening the bar because a number of factors needed to be taken into consideration including weather, tides and river flows — which were controlled in-part by Meridian Energy.

On top of protecting homes, the district council was also dealing with a community landfill eroding into the sea at the end of Bluecliffs Beach Rd.

The council had begun removing the landfill last year, but ceased work after reports of buried explosives came to light.

Options for managing the risk and removing the landfill were being considered, the council said.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

Reporter: Matthew Rosenberg