NSW Environment Minister Rob Stokes hasn’t been in his job long but is already making waves for coastal communities.
Our sympathies go out to the community at Old Bar (near Taree) faced with not only a major erosion problem but now the Minister’s recent decision to reject their council’s proposal for a protective rock wall.
With a $50 million price tag this wall was always going to be a tough sell.
But for the Old Bar and Taree-coast communities this latest report in their local paper about the Minister’s alternative proposal of Planned Retreat for the whole of the Taree coastline was every bit as tough.
The community at Lake Cathie, an hour’s drive north of Old Bar, must be monitoring these developments closely as their own coastal erosion decision looms. As you can see from this report Minister Stokes has clearly said (my italics not his)
“….the community should not see the Old Bar decision as a precedent. “The whole point of our approach to coastal erosion and integrated coastal management is that every embayment [coastline recess] is different,…..the government would make decisions based on rational evidence and a thorough assessment of the environmental, social and economic consequences of the plans which councils put forward.”
In fact, it’s a fair bet that residents all along the NSW coast will be watching the Minister’s impending decision for Lake Cathie to see if he is true to his words. Will Lake Cathie get a decision based on rational evidence or will this decision be another plank in a policy of planned-retreat-by-stealth? As always with politicians, the proof of the pudding will be in his actions not his words.
Wooli was a family place for Joy Henderson since way back when her parents Norma and Arthur Allan retired there in the late 1960 ‘s. This was in the days before electricity and the water tower. Joy and her family watched tip trucks driving down Main Street, with loads of enormous boulders to build the breakwater. They experienced the much-needed improvements to the infamous Wooli Road. It is still a long way to travel from Melbourne but back then it was the last section of road from the Pacific Highway that was an adventure in itself.
unforeseen and the damage is unavoidable, but in many cases the consequences of natural disasters could be mitigated.â€
– coastal erosion and inundation should be recognised as an emerging type of disaster, which, if forecasts are correct, could steadily become a major long term problem around the whole of Australia ‘s coastline;
The 2014 Wild About Wooli ArtShow will present exhibits of regional artists who are inspired by the beauty of our coast. These can include paintings, works on paper, sculptures and fabric art which fit the theme: Coastal.
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).
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.