You may recall from our January 2021 update that Wooli beach had come through the summer storms showing some wear and tear but no damage to the main dune.
Mother Nature’s demands left a 1m-2m high scar along most of the new foredune and badly damaged many of the seaward sand traps.
But thankfully the 2019 beach scrape and revegetation project provided enough protection to meet that
demand and still retain a foredune 10m-15m wide with healthy vegetation along the most at-risk section of dunes.
However, as mentioned in January, even partial protection by the Solitary Islands reefs plus the success of the 2019 project are unlikely to be sufficient to withstand increasing climate change threats from more severe storms, rising sea levels and closer tropical cyclones.
A major part of the plan to address this threat and build towards a dune able to withstand a 1-in-50-years storm is to repeat the 2019 project in 2021 with another round of beach scraping and revegetation to repair and further strengthen the dune. Early in 2020 CCPA started working with council and NSW state government on this second-scrape project. The initial timetable was to complete the project during the March-June window of 2021 as this is the period when historically the beach is in optimum condition, wide and flat with plenty of sand available.
Unfortunately, based on several recent reviews of the beach plus analysis of weather and wave forecasts, the conclusion has been reached that the conditions in March-June wont be suitable. The target has now been moved to August-November 2021, subject to the beach recovering. Meanwhile, work is continuing to fine-tune and finalise government funding and licences.
On a brighter note, huge congratulations to the Wooli Art Show committee for staging the largest and most successful show yet over the recent Easter weekend. As CCPA President Bruce Bird wrote to the Committee “I must congratulate you all on the absolutely fantastic effort put in by all, bringing the community together, the Artists and also bringing together the Sponsors, to provide the financial impetus for the stunning success the Art Show has been – it is testament to what can be achieved – on behalf of CCPA I say thank you.)
In closing, CCPA is pleased to welcome members who have joined us recently. New faces, ideas and enthusiasm are always welcome so feel free to forward this update to any recent arrivals to Wooli who you think could be interested to know more about its challenges and our campaign to protect it.
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