Sandy Beach meeting

The meeting last night was very well attended, with I guess about 70 people concerned about development plans for Sandy Beach and Hearns Lake. The meeting was called by a new group, Sandy/Hearns Action group (SHAG).

The proposal that's now before Coffs Harbour City Council is now open for public discussion. Although the meeting was attended mainly by interested locals, several speakers with specialist knowledge, including an ecologist, set forth a number of very good reasons for concern about the developer's proposal. This proposal allows for an additional 300 or more houses to be built quite close to the shores of Hearns Lake.

The ecologist explained that Hearns Lake is what scientists call an "ICOL", an "intermittently open and closed lagoon". The intermittent opening and closing of the mouth of the lagoon is an important part of that lake's evolution, but makes it susceptible to accumulations of pulltants. Hearns Lake, we were told, is already under stress from stormwater and other matter entering the lake, and we were given the impreesion that any further stress would be disastrous.

Among other creatures, the lake vicinity is home to an endangered species, the Wallum froglet (pictured at left), and a breeding ground for the endangered Loggerhead turtle (pictured at top).

Of course, much more transpired, including reports from action groups of nearby beaches which, quite frankly, were not encouraging as not all environmental battles are being won in the face of so-called 'development'. Tales of councillors neglecting to answer correspondence abounded. Stay tuned because in future days I will post more info here.

It's raining hard, but I hope to see you tomorrow with some more Nature from within 1,000 paces of my home.