Boardwalk

A short timber boardwalk runs between two of the Tin City shacks, raised on low timber bearers to keep it above the moving sand. The boards are second-hand timber, mismatched in width, fastened with countersunk screws. The walkway is wide enough for one person and runs about three metres between the buildings. Sand has crept up over the bearers in places. A small grab-rail of galvanised pipe runs along one side. The boardwalk surface has weathered to a uniform pale grey under decades of wind and salt.

Boardwalks between the shacks at Tin City are a practical solution to a basic problem: walking on loose sand all day, especially with anything heavy, is hard work. A short raised boardwalk costs little to build from salvaged timber, lifts the walking surface above the dune, and lasts a long time in the local conditions if it's elevated enough that the sand doesn't bury it. Most of the surviving 11 shacks have at least one short boardwalk somewhere around them. The Worimi Conservation Lands Plan of Management 2015 allows the existing structures and their immediate environs to be maintained; the rule against new building applies to whole new shacks rather than to incidental repairs of this kind.