Engineer says 50 years of erosion research being ignored
A co-author of the first NSW Coastal Protection Act says 50 years of research is being undermined by courts allowing people to protect their own properties at select locations.
A civil engineer from the 1970s, Angus Gordon, has expressed his disappointment over a recent court decision that allows residents in a northern suburb of the Central Coast to build seawalls to protect their homes from erosion. Gordon was a co-author of the state's first Coastal Protection Act in 1978 and its revision in 2016. He believes the court's ruling undermines the principles set forth in the act and predicts a worsening of coastal erosion problems in the future.
The decision to permit seawalls at The Entrance North is seen as an "unfortunate precedent" by Gordon, who is also critical of Crown Lands' sandbagging efforts at Byron Bay's Clarkes Beach. These actions, according to Gordon, are contrary to his earlier recommendation to allow nature to manage the shoreline. He argues for a more national approach to coastal management, stating that property owners should not be allowed to protect their properties.
However, some residents, like Chris Rodgers of the Wamberal Protection Association, disagree and advocate for the protection of beachfront properties. Southern Cross University's Professor Tim Smith highlights the struggle of Australia's legal system to keep up with coastal property disputes, attributing this to the common law tradition that assumes stable coastlines and fixable property boundaries.
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