The sea water that had been lapping at the foundations of Meredith Street houses on the north end of the Stockton peninsula Saturday morning, after a storm swell and high tide sent waves crashing over the dunes and Mitchell Street rock wall, had largely drained away by the afternoon and residents had begun taking stock of the mess in "deepening levels of concern" for the eroding protections keeping them safe from the roiling ocean.
John Hunter, who has lived on Meredith Street for five years, said the waves that carried sand and foam over the unprotected north end of Stockton Beach in the morning had reached as far as Fullerton Street - the only road onto the peninsula and almost back the entire breadth of the suburb to the Hunter River - and had inundated the nature strip outside his home.
