Speaking from his office in Main St. Wooli, Bruce Bird (President of the Protect Wooli campaign) congratulated Clarence Valley Council on its recent unanimous decision to undertake a major revision of Wooli ‘s Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP).
“It didn ‘t happen overnight but it did happen†said Bruce.“We ‘ve still got a lot of hurdles to clear but this was a big one to get over.
The new plan will move away from abandoning the village. Instead it will focus on understanding the forces that shape the beach and using modern adaptive management science to develop a beach protection strategy for the long termâ€.
For the full story read our previous News item
Following hard on the heels of the Prince St. announcement, theWooli community and CVC received strong support for their new approach via a media release from the O ‘Farrell government in Macquarie St. Sydney.
The release by Special Minister of State, Chris Hartcher announced that
– The heavy handed application of (the previous government) Labour ‘s sea level rise planning benchmarks for 2050 and 2100 would go…given that the scientific knowledge in the field was continually evolving
– Councils will have the freedom to consider local conditions when determining future hazards
– (And there will be) more freedom given to landowners to protect their properties from erosion.
Main St. and Prince St. aren ‘t resting on their laurels however.
The Wooli community has already implemented the surveys and 
automated photography systems to capture on-shore data about the beach and dunes. The community is now working with CVC on a jointly funded project to map the off-shore data about Wooli bay including its waves, currents, contours and sediments.
Time is of the essence as CVC works towards having a new CZMP available by December. What a Christmas present that would be for the Wooli community.
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