The dredge that has been used to clear Wyong Creek has been idle for months.
Council could send it down on a low loader and start dredging the channel at Half Tide Rocks.
It isn’t an ocean going dredge, but it could at least be used when the seas are calm, besides which, Broken Bay is part of the Hawkesbury estuary and not open coast in terms of rough seas.
We also need dredging in other channels inside Brisbane Water.
The 2012 Coastal Zone Management Plan for Brisbane Water Estuary makes provision for extensive dredging in Brisbane Water.
Opening up major channels will improve the quality of the water, and it will improve navigation, making it safer, while opening up Saratoga, Bensville and Kincumber to a ferry service.
I am certain the oyster growers would welcome improved water circulation as well.
Recreational activities, including swimming and fishing, would also benefit.
The State Government is offering funding on a 50 per cent cost basis.
This is common for many of the grants that Councils take up and they pay their share in kind using existing staff and assets.
They don’t lose.
Council will come up with every reason why the dredge can’t be used, but it is time they actually did something besides their focus on setting up the Central Coast Council.
After all, Mr Reynolds and Mr Noble told us that we weren’t too badly off financially, despite the Gosford Financial Crisis.
The Central Coast needs Brisbane Water to be as good as we can possibly make it.
Brisbane Water together with our beaches and the Tuggerah Lakes System is, after all, why people moved here and still keep coming.
Email, Apr 18
Pat Aiken, Saratoga