Myall Coast News Of The Area 18 May 2023

One thought on “Myall Coast News Of The Area 18 May 2023”

1. Whilst the article entitled “Beach Sand Plan” is a welcome addition to the debate about beach renourishment, it contains a number od errors which need clarification:
   It focuses strongly on the extraction of sand from Deadman’s as being the cause of the problem. That is incorrect. It might be a theory, but it’s patently incorrect. Erosion, and silting of the outlet of the Myall River began long before that. Numerous reports and studies have been undertaken over the years, culminating in a PWD Report, authored by Jeff Wilson, in 1987, entitled “Jimmy’s Beach Erosion”. That report is regarded as the critical report. It was commissioned by PWD in order to advise Councils where problems might exist and what the potential solutions might be. The information in this Report is still very relevant.

   Following that Report, in 1987 Great Lakes Council imposed a moratorium on development on Winda Woppa. That moratorium was lifted in 1990.

   Queries have been raised as to whether a “whole of system” study of the area had ever been conducted? Expert opinion is that it had – that’s what the 1987 Report was all about. Queries were also raised as to whether there was any point in conducting another such study? The response has been that it would be a waste of money. The 1987 Report, taken in conjunction with numerous other reports before and since, provided sufficient understanding of the mechanisms in play in Port Stephens. Further studies are therefore unnecessary.
   The statement in the final paragraph the article is also incorrect:

   “The last 30 years’ numerous individual studies, each performed at various points and times around the system, have not been comprehensively and scientifically consolidated, so the information avalanche remains too unclear to guide decisive and purposeful future actions.”

   Many expert coastal engineers have studied Port Stephens and Jimmy’s Beach and all of the relevant studies, and have come to the general conclusion that:

   1. The system is a closed system, to all intents and purposes;
   2. The system is in dynamic disequilibrium and it is impossible to predict from past performance, how it will react in the future;
   3. As has been demonstrated around the world, sand renourishment is the most effective and sustainable method of protecting the beach and its environs;
   4. So-called “permanent solutions” are not only extremely costly, but have consequential side-effects which render them unsatisfactory.

   As was apparently pointed out to the journalist, depending on the weather at the time, sand can be transported around the bay in a number of different directions. To suggest that “introduction of sand from Deadman’s” was detrimental, is fanciful. It was a drop in the bucket. The sand from the “Yaccaba Sand wave” was, in part, a result of the ocean breaking through the Yaccaba spit many years ago. As previously noted, a dynamic system.

   I hope future articles reflect a more accurate picture.

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