No Shellharbour Marina: Environment

Space Walkers Take Flight

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 05:09:42 GMT

Members of SPACE (Shellharbour Peoples Association for Conservation and the Environment) conducted a beach walk along Shellharbour South Beach yesterday, 27th September 2005. Over 30 people took part in the walk which was held to refamiliarise people with the area of beach to be destroyed. The entrance will take out about 300 metres of the beach. It was pointed out that it would be hard to imagine any other Council allowing such a precious asset as a beach to be desecrated in such a way. People viewed the lagoon and the wetlands that will also be destroyed should the 350 berth marina go ahead.

Russell Hannah
Convenor
SPACE

6 pictures of the walk added to photo album

photos taken by: Sonya

'SPACE' press release

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 07:22:40 GMT

SPACE

(Shellharbour Peoples' Association for

Conservation and the Environment)

PO BOX A 125

Shellharbour, NSW, 2529

Group Reactivates to Save Shellharbour South Beach

Recent developments relating to the Shellharbour Marina have resulted in SPACE (Shellharbour Peoples' Association for Conservation and the Environment) deciding to reinvigorate itself.

A spokesperson for the group, Russell Hannah, said that for some time now many people had believed that the boat harbour part of the development was not financially feasible and would never go ahead. Recent statements in the media indicate that the reality of the Marina is still firmly fixed in the minds of some of our councillors and senior council officers. On their part it is an act of faith rather than rationality.

The proposal for the Marina has been around since 1984, a time of high unemployment. This fact was used to support what is likely to be an environmental, ecological and financial disaster in 2006 and beyond.

Mr Hannah said that the new golf course is a clear example of the incompetence with which the scheme has been bedevilled. We have lost a perfectly good local golf course, that was popular with local players, was built largely by local volunteers and acted as a green belt between the Shellharbour Village and Shellcove. It has been destroyed and replaced by a course that most locals can't play on, that was grossly over budget, has severe design faults and that ratepayers have to subsidise by thousands of dollars a month just to keep it operating.

If the Golf Course continues to be a white elephant then many people are worried that it too will be turned into a housing development.

The cost of building the Marina is now estimated to be $100 million, which will of course be paid for from ratepayers' money. After spending over $163 million on the development so far, the surplus is under $2 million. As of the beginning of May, over 1100 blocks had been sold which represents about 38% of the total to be developed. The money derived from the sale of land (all owned by ratepayers) should be ploughed back into community facilities. $100 million would go a long way to an aquatic centre and other facilities that all residents can have access to.

The worst feature of the development, Mr Hannah said, was the damage it will do to Shellharbour South Beach. One third of it will be taken for the Marina Mouth and there is no guarantee that the rest of the beach will not be destroyed.

It is now over 20 years since the development was conceived and ten years since the Commission of Enquiry. Times have changed. The development of Shell Cove Estate and the 1200 houses already built there, as well as the developments in Flinders and Albion Park means there is even more pressure on our beaches. We can ill afford to lose any of them.

Mr Hannah concluded by saying that SPACE will be concentrating on informing the public about the problems associated with this development. The first sod has not been turned, he said, so it is not, as many people would have you believe, a 'done deal'. Public Opinion is a powerful weapon and we will be seeking to harness it in our campaign to preserve South Shellharbour Beach.

Further information;

Russell Hannah

email: bigruss@1earth.net

Shell Cove Marina Plan Back to Court

Tue, 24 May 2005 11:29:58 GMT

Taken directly from BlackGreenSolidarity

THE Shell Cove marina proposal heads back to the Land and Environment Court tomorrow as protesters continue their fight to stop the development. The court will hear an application that development consent for the marina has lapsed because no work was carried out within five years of the approval given in January 1997. The hearing comes amid separate claims that Shellharbour City Council could be in contempt of court after it cleared the Aboriginal tent embassy on the site last Thursday. The council switched tactics last week and dropped its Land and Environment Court action to remove one of the campers. That meant the council was no longer bound by an undertaking not to interfere with the campers while the application remained before the court. Instead, the council used its common law rights as owner of the land to clear the area on the basis camping on that site was illegal. The council said the unoccupied camping equipment was removed last Thursday, but protesters claim some tents were cleared earlier…. Mr Oshlack contended that last week's clearing of the embassy had provided him with further legal ammunition to press his case. 'An inspection of the land where the embassy was situated revealed 10 separate Aboriginal artefacts have been disturbed without consent,' he said. 'We've been putting together an affidavit for the litigation commencing Wednesday that this is in breach of the National Parks and Wildlife Act.'

[ see the article in original context here ]

Evicted... again.

Tue, 03 May 2005 05:10:32 GMT

Unfortunately, on the 15th of April, the Shellharbour City Council cleared the Shell Cove Aboriginal Tent Embassy from their occupation of the dunes at Shellharbour South Beach. The area around the entrance and the site of the evicted tent embassy is now fenced off, with new "No Camping" signs places nearby.
But on an optimistic note, the legal representative for the Shell Cove Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Alan Oshlack, promises, "The embassy will be back, bigger and better than ever. The council is in for a big surprise within three weeks."

14 new photos of Shellharbour South Beach and the surrounding wetlands uploaded today.

Updates for 'No Shellharbour Marina'

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 07:52:48 GMT

Upcoming Updates:

Photos of the proposed development site and the Shell Cove Aboriginal Tent Embassy to be uploaded later this week
Copy of Shellharbour City Council's plans for the proposed marina and surrounding commercial/residential development to be uploaded as soon as they are obtained

the marina itself can never have an entrance across the beach

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 01:29:54 GMT

"...although Shellharbour Council has the upper hand in the sense that it can build sub-divided hillside houses, the marina itself can never have an entrance across the beach because that's Crown land and that's part of the native title claim."

[see "Shellharbour's Marine Quandary" in related readings]