Opponents of the PEP 11 permit for off-shore exploration aren’t the only ones celebrating the passage of the Seabed Mining and Exploration Bill through NSW Parliament recently.
The Wamberal Save Our Sand (SOS) group says the Bill, which bans offshore mining within three nautical miles of the NSW coastline, also opens the way for easier movements of sand.
SOS says the Bill makes sand nourishment a substantially more viable option for NSW beaches including Wamberal.
The group has sent a letter to Central Coast Council Administrator Rik Hart suggesting the new Bill obligates Council to rescind any resolution for the adoption of a seawall at Wamberal Beach.
In a letter to SOS earlier this month, Hart said that he considered the matter to be in the hands of the State Government.
“Until such time that the state government were to deliver any legislative changes that could impact any component of terminal protection works at Wamberal, I will not be making any further resolutions at Council regarding this matter,” he wrote to SOS.
Significantly for Wamberal Beach, the Bill’s ban exempts coastal protection works, as defined under the Coastal Management Act, 2016, including beach nourishment and beach scraping.
For more than 30 years, beach nourishment has been hampered by another Act of Parliament which classified sand as a mineral and restricted its movement.
SOS says nothing should now stand in the way of Council using sand nourishment instead of a hard seawall at Wamberal Beach.
The Council has recently paid $100,000 towards its share of the paperwork for a whole of embayment development application (DA) for a seawall which local landowner group Wamberal Protection Association is working on.
“The new law allows offshore sand to be more affordably and sustainably returned to the beachfront as part of the natural system, sprayed or ‘rainbowed’ onto Wamberal Beach and other NSW beaches by a floating dredge; no trucks involved,” SOS said.
“Wamberal now has a path to beach replenishment, including dune revegetation, on a scale and cost efficiency never before seen in NSW.”
The group says the new law paves the way for Council Administrator Rik Hart to pass a resolution to repeal Council’s adoption of a seawall at Wamberal Beach.
“Wamberal Beach SOS recently received a letter from Rik Hart in which he offered to meet NSW Minister for Environment Penny Sharpe and SOS volunteers Corinne and Mark Lamont to discuss sand nourishment as a solution for Wamberal Beach,” SOS said.
The volunteers are hoping that the meeting will go ahead in the light of the legislation changes.
Merilyn Vale