An NJRPP Public Briefing Meeting in Iluka, NSW, 20 September 2017

Section of the southern boundary of the Hickey Street land proposed for development

On 21 September 2017 North Coast Voices received this email from an Iluka resident on the subject of a recent meeting in that little coastal town:

At 4.30pm on Wednesday 20th September 2017 the Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel (NJRPP) held a Public Briefing Meeting at Iluka Community Hall concerning the proposed coastal subdivision of 19 hectares of environmentally sensitive land adjacent to the Iluka World Heritage Area.

The meeting was chaired by Gary West (Chair NJRPP) who was accompanied by three other panel members - Ms. Pam Westing, Clarence Valley Mayor Jim Simmons and Deputy-Mayor Jason Kingsley.

Four council staff members accompanied the panel members, including Carmel Landers who is responsible for progressing the development application through council planning processes.

Concerned residents and ratepayers filled between half and three-quarters of the hall’s seating capacity.

A number of people from the Yaegl community were present, as well as Cr. Greg Clancy who was there in a personal capacity.

The Panel secretariat had invited individuals and groups who had made formal submissions on the proposed development to register beforehand as speakers.

Around nine listed speakers presented their views and most called attention to significant problems with the development application – including street design, lot density, stormwater drainage and nutrient load, as well as loss of tree cover and habitat in the current version of this 140 lot urban development.

The Association of Iluka Residents (AIR Inc) were first off in the order of speakers. Its President introduced the issues, the Secretary expanded on key concerns, and one of AIR's members presented questions to the developer (in absentia) via the panel and Council staff, then the President wrapped up the AIR presentation.

John Edwards on behalf of the Clarence Environment Centre spoke with some authority on issues of concern regarding the proposed development.

Also rising to their feet were local residents Kay Jeffrey and Gabrielle Barto.

Ms. Jeffrey spoke very eloquently from the heart about Land Care on the World Heritage site which contains rare littoral rainforest, pointing out this development would be detrimental to flora and fauna within that site. Expressing her gratification that evidence now showed the koala was not functionally extinct in Iluka. She further pointed out that the type of development proposed was better suited to outer metropolitan urban areas such as Mt. Druitt.

While Ms. Barto spoke with a deal of on-the-ground knowledge on a range of environmental and planning concerns. She highlighted the fact that sightings of koala on and in the vicinity of the land in question demonstrated that this large lot was being used as part of a larger movement corridor.

A retired real estate agent originally from Bribie Island stated he didn't want Iluka to turn into a Bribie Island or Lennox Head, having had firsthand experience of what can happen if poorly planned developments are allowed in coastal towns. Additionally, he spoke of the problems associated with community title – in particular that by-laws and management plans on community title could be changed over time.

Another speaker suggested the development site would be suitable for acquisition by the NSW Government in order to protect the local koala population and koala habitat. Something it has apparently undertaken in the Tweed Heads region.

Grahame Lynn (who was approx.10 minutes late) was the last scheduled speaker as President of the Iluka Ratepayers Association (IRA). He proceeded to attack with some vigour the Clarence Environment Centre submission as well as those of many other individuals and groups that oppose this development. Indeed he spent most of the time in attack mode and very little time in talking up the proposed development.

Mr. Lynn as a local real estate agent has been advertising the proposed subdivision for at least the last eighteen months  – a potential conflict of interest he failed to mention to the panel. 

It was noted that up until that point, all panel members and Council staff were taking copious notes, but as soon as he started talking they stopped. I guess one loses credibility when attacking the “player and not the ball” so to speak.

By the end of the meeting I was of the opinion that Gary West as Chair had run the meeting well, making us all feel comfortable and all points of view were heard.

Anon

Iluka, NSW

Coastal Cypress Pine on the development site

Images supplied by Iluka resident

Koalas in Iluka, NSW lead such interesting lives

One young well-known koala attempting to hide in Loxton Street from the Iluka paparazzi……

Well done, Iluka Green Army & Landcare volunteers

And well done Clarence Valley Independent for reporting this local content on 7 June 2017:

The team replanting trees in Everlasting Swamp, at Lawrence. Image: Contributed.

New homes for birds and fish are being created as the Iluka GreenArmy and Landcare help the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) replant tree cover in Everlasting Swamp National Park at Lawrence.
NPWS Project Officer Dean Egan said restoring tree cover will create habitat for birds, provide shade and structure for fish and assist in improving water quality in the park.
“More than 140 trees were planted in recent weeks, adding to the over 1200 trees planted in since start of 2016,” Mr Egan said.
“A big thanks to the dedicated team of ten GreenArmy crew and five Iluka Landcare volunteers.
“The Sandon to Wooli Community Nursery and Iluka Landcare have worked with NPWS to source local seed, raise young trees and the Envite-led Iluka GreenArmy has been planting the trees.”
Envite GreenArmy Coordinator Mick Webb said it is great to see this improved wetland health achieved through this community partnership of both young and old.
“The incredible birdlife, fish and rare wetland vegetation needed a bit of a hand up. Parts of the new park were devoid of creek-bank trees, with older trees being hit hard by dieback and lack of habitat,” Mr Webb said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Everlasting Swamp from the air

Everlasting Swamp from above, Everlasting Swamp National Park. Photo: Lawrence Orel/OEH

Everlasting Swamp NP_180417_0007 | by OEHmedia

Photo: abc.net.au

And people wonder why their council rates keep rising

Council rates don't just rise because the dollar value of lots in a local government area increase or because a council needs to play catch-up with its infrastucture build and road maintenance debts.

Rates may also rise over time because of other cumulative costs. Including the cost of too many people vandalizing or illegally dumping on property owned or managed by a council.

Here is a classic example. The result of someone obviously wanting to take a vehicle somewhere a vehicle was not meant to go.

There are timber bollards at both ends of a walking track at the rear of the Bowling Club in Iluka, a quiet little village at the mouth of the Clarence River.

Replacing, repositioning or re-erecting these bollards costs Clarence Valley Council money in the form of material and/or manhours. 

I am reliably informed that this is the third time this has happened in the last four weeks and that these bollards were also vandalised around 18 months ago.

 Photographs of vandalised bollards supplied

Now the majority of people living in the NSW Northern Rivers region are rightly proud of the greenspaces within their towns and villages and the natural forests inbetween.

So the next time you see someone doing something like this - report it to your local council and if appropriate then call the police.

Remember, doing so just might save you some money in the long run.

"Blinky Bill" visits a couple of Iluka residents in February 2017

Delightful video and photograph of a koala in Spenser Street, Iluka NSW, by Lisa Shaw from the Green Room café at Iluka.

Ken Nicholl from Iluka Landcare transferred this little koala to a koala food tree next door.

An Iluka resident tells me that this koala was approximately 1km from the proposed subdivision of Lot 99 Hickey Street, Iluka, a parcel of land which also reportedly contains koala food trees.

Koalas in Iluka on the NSW North Coast and coastal development pressure

Who would not get pleasure in seeing this healthy young Koala peering down at them from the foliage?

Photograph supplied by Gabrielle Barto

It was sighted in Paperbark and then later Flooded Gum in Sid and Eileen Gill Park in Elizabeth Street, Iluka all day on Wednesday, 8th February 2017 and is one of those koalas giving lie to the myth much favoured by developers that the local koala population is functionally extinct.

The amateur photographer on the spot, Ms. Barto stated: May be the same koala sighted in Elizabeth St. on 5th January. Both sightings are within 250 metres of Hickey St. Iluka D/A site. One of the criteria for assessing critical koala habitat  (E.P.B.C  Critical Koala Habitat assessment tool) is that one or more koalas are sighted within 2 kms. of the edge of impact area, in this case the Hickey St. (D/A) site, within the last 5 years.

Passions run deep in Iluka not only for koalas, but also more generally for protecting biodiversity for future generations.

Letter to the Editor in the Clarence Valley Independent on 8 February 2017:

Iluka DA - Have Your Say

15 January at 20:07 

Koala sighting again.

Intersection of Hogan street and Elizabeth streets 5th January 2017 around 9.30 am. (West of the 160 lot development proposal)

Thank you and great work Essential Energy. They got here pretty qiuckly and it was a great relocation to the relative safety of the bush across the road.

This situation came about because of a dog chasing the koala. Hopefully the koala headed back into the Bundjalung National Park (to the East of this location) and to relative safety.

This bush heading back to the national park is going to be largely cleared and broken up if the 160 lot subdivision gets approval. The re-submitted DA still does not include a continuous vegetation corridor for koalas to move in a east west or west east direction!

Koalas will become more vulnerable to dog attack and car strike unless the developer includes a realistic continuous vegetation corridor within the proposed development site.

Belatedly the NSW Coalition Government; is currently beginning the development of a whole of government koala strategy and asking for community feedback on planning issues and its Saving Our Species conservation strategy. At a federal level, the National Koala Conservation and Management Strategy expired in 2014. Word is that a new strategy is in the pipeline but at the moment we’re flying blind.

The best way to protect koalas is a tried and tested one. The scientists that identified the crisis ecoregion problem also identified the solution: large, well-connected protected areas. Only by protecting and connecting remaining koala habitat can the government enact meaningful conservation. Everything else is tinkering round the edges.

And only by demonstrating that it can effectively protect koalas can we have any confidence that the government can protect the rest of Australia’s extraordinary wildlife that doesn’t share the koala’s high profile. [The Guardian, 16 January 2017]

On the other hand professional property developer, climate change sceptic and alternate Clarence Valley Council representative on the NSW Northern Joint Planning Panel, Cr. Andrew Baker, made this characteristically snide comment on Saturday, 11 February 2016 in an email he cc’d to North Coast Voices¹:

Thanks Gab for the copy

I hadn't appreciated the significance until your email.

It seems the only Koala sightings in the last 5 years have occurred at exactly the same time as Council is considering significant Iluka Development Applications.

I recall the identical occurrence as Council was about to consider the Anchorage Park expansion.

On the basis of your reports it seems development applications are proving extremely beneficial in attracting Koala to the area. Of course it might take a few more DA's to prove this obvious benefit but I expect this will now encourage further.

Of course I'm not suggesting the ability to encourage Koala is the only reason to support any development application - it will be just one of, if any, benefits to be considered along with disadvantages if any on a case-by-case basis.

Thank you for bringing this supporting information to our attention.

Regards

Andrew Baker

The tenor of this comment throws into doubt Cr. Baker’s ability to act as an unbiased council alternate (if called upon) in relation to this particular development application when it is considered by the Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel in March this year.

North Coast Voices was not alone in noticing this comment, as one other recipient of Baker's email made clear when he told the councilor: "I find your comments not only highly offensive, but, given your supposedly impartial decision-making role as Councillor, deeply disturbing."

To which the property developing Cr. Baker's insouciant reply (again cc'd to this blog) was; "It's unfortunate that you are disturbed and offended. Surely that's some personal issue that can't be blamed only on my willingness to state the obvious?

And people wonder why - when all the world loves koalas - they are fast disappearing from this state's coastal landscape?

Note:
When deciding to send his reply email as "Reply All", Cr. Baker made a conscious choice to also make his personal views known to council staff having some responsibility for and/or carriage of formal advice to Council-in-the-Chamber in relation to DA SUB2015/0034. Thus muddying the waters considerably, given it is a number of concerned residents' understanding that a final staff report and recommendation on the development application is yet to be delivered.

So who has a bad case of egg on face when it comes to an Iluka DA - The Daily Examiner or the NSW Nationals Member for Clarence?

On 13 January 2017 The Daily Examiner contained this little nugget of information on Page 3:

State Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis agreed there were plenty of good arguments to support their case, and said he wa “absolutely supportive” of their fight [for an ambulance station].

But he said it would be an uphill battle, partly due to the village’s small size.

Iluka has a population of about 2000 but it is growing, with planning for a 162 lot subdivision just finalised.

Planning for a 162 lot subdivision just finalised?

Seems either Chris Gulaptis is spinning the situation or the newspaper took its eyes off the ball.

Planning appears to be far from finalised.

This was on Page 31 of Clarence Valley Council’s Environment, Planning & Community Committee Meeting Business Paper of 14  February 2017:

SUB2015/0034 11/12/2015 297 162 lot Residential Subdivision and new roads

Hickey Street

ILUKA NSW 2466

Additional information received and unsatisfactory.

Further information has been requested 24/1/17 (flora and fauna, stormwater, sewer, cultural heritage)

In addition, the formal staff report to council is yet to be tabled and deliberations of the Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel are not yet completed.

And property developers try to say that Iluka in the Clarence Valley NSW has no koala population

Clarence Valley Council, media release, 18 January 2017:

Koala avoids nasty shock

On the way to work one morning in early January, Iluka resident Mark Starkey was shocked to see a koala high up an electricity pole. Koalas usually prefer good quality habitat with plenty of their favourite food trees.

Thanks to Mark, the koala avoided serious injury. ‘I rang the energy company who temporarily disconnected the power and relocated the animal to nearby bushland’, he said.

Mark was just one of the residents in the areas of Iluka, Woombah and Ashby to receive a brochure from Council detailing ways to help koalas by protecting native bushland, containing dogs, and ways to recognise koala food trees. The brochure also asked residents to ring and report koala sightings. Mark then contacted Council with the details of the koala.

The biggest threats to koalas in our area are loss of food and shelter trees, vehicle strike and dog attacks. Even though there are 100’s of different types of Eucalypts, koalas tend to only eat one or a few species. So even a single tree in your backyard can be important to koalas and other wildlife.

There’s more information about koalas in the Clarence on our website www.clarence.nsw.gov.au (search ‘koala’).

If you’d like a copy of the brochure or if you’ve seen koalas in your area, please ring Council on 66430200.

Release ends.

The same koala on his way down the electricity pole

Koala in bushland at Frazer's Reef, Iluka, in May 2016 at 

https://www.facebook.com/Ilukadahaveyoursay/videos/1158769244173802/

Iluka Development Application No. SUB2015/0034: "The Bob Jelly Gazette" decides it always knew it would happen

In March 2016 the Ratepayers Association of Iluka Inc. published its regular newsletter in which its president, real estate agent Graeme Lynn, stated the following:

Eight months later and the story has changed – now we’re told there was always going to be a major revision of the development application:

As  for those ordinary people who “suddenly became town planners and without any knowledge were telling everyone the design was poor and needed redoing”.

Well it appears that the “experts” are not as disdainful as Bob Jelly & Co, because this turned up in one of the documents being submitted to the Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel on behalf of the developer:

So   congratulations to all those locals at Iluka who took the photographs, did the geo-plotting and otherwise supplied information for the Thursday, 16 June 2016 blog post

A remnant Coastal Cypress Pine Forest in Iluka, New South Wales.

Australia Infrastructure Development doesn't know its rivers

The Message from Iluka....

Clarence Valley Independent, June 2016:

Ed,

I read with some bewilderment that a “summit” had been held in Casino last week by AID (Australia Infrastructure Development) for the development of a mega port to accommodate massive ships in the Lower Clarence River.

Thought I’d Google here to see what is going on: www.aid-australia.com.au.

This proposal would completely destroy the lower Clarence.

It would appear to be a box ticking exercise as part of a formal application process to government.

Ticking the “community consultation” box.

Community consultation indeed!

This company has completely failed to consult the right communities.

Surely the business people and residents of Iluka, Yamba, Maclean, Grafton and all the smaller villages and islands along the river should have been the target audiences?

One would think the company’s “summit” might have been held in one of the fine clubs that are at Iluka, Yamba, or perhaps Maclean or Grafton, rather than Casino over 100kms away.

And hey, not even the right river! Casino is on the Richmond River. Go figure.

Perhaps AID just had some bad advice about matching the right town/s to the right river.

Or is this just being a tad sneaky? Trying to keep us all in the dark until the paperwork has been lodged.

Or worse still, trying to bluff us and the government that AID conducted extensive “community consultation”.

Either way, there will be huge opposition to this MEGA PORT proposal if it is ever considered.

Tony Belton, Iluka

The Message from Grafton....

The Daily Examiner, Letter to the Editor, 8 Jul 2016:

Ugly transformation

THE Yamba Port and Rail proposal first raised its ugly head three or four years ago, and now the promoters, Australian Infrastructure Developments, and Deakin Capital Pty Ltd, are ramping up the pressure, promoting their multi billion dollar, 36sqkm obscenity, which would completely transform the lower Clarence into an export port facility to rival Newcastle.

Gone would be the fishing, sugar and tourist industries that are the current economic drivers, replaced by heavy industry and its associated noise, air and water pollution, as huge freighters, tankers, and container ships, spewing their poisonous bilge sludge into the river as they go, replace the current pleasure craft and fishing vessels.

Gone would be the quiet relaxing retirement destination described in a series of Government development strategies over the past 20 years, as coastal villages of Iluka, and Harwood, along with communities on Palmers Island and elsewhere, are decimated to allow for the widening and dredging of the river estuary, to four times the current depth.

Gone would be the culturally significant Dirrangun Reef, sacred to the Yaegl people, as part of that massive dredging.

Gone would be the supposedly protected significant agricultural land on the delta, replaced by endless kilometres of wharfs and warehouses, and massive holding pens for the proposed live cattle export, their stench wafting over the urban centres of Yamba and Maclean.

And don't forget border security, with the proponents making provision for a naval base that, in the event of conflict, could see the area become an enemy target.

There are of course the obvious obstacles to such a scheme; the sacred reef, the unstable delta soils which will collapse into the river as a result of the dredging.

There are regular floods that will require mountains of fill to raise the entire project area above flood level, a barrier that is bound to divert those flood waters across Yamba, causing even worse flooding there.

Then there is the added problem of climate change and rising sea levels. Even a modest .75 of a metre within 80 years will see most of the land proposed for the industrial complex inundated at high tide, a situation that will worsen even further with the passage of time.

It's hard to take such a proposal seriously, but over the years we have heard reports that politicians, state and federal, various northern NSW councils, including some of our local councillors, meeting with the scheme's proponents. The Northern Star's report featuring a happy Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, with arms around the proponents smiling for the cameras, adds a worrying dimension to this abhorrent proposal.

It's time for our leaders to come clean, tell us exactly what has, and is still being discussed behind closed doors, and if this proposal is pie in the sky, then to inform the proponents of that fact, and tell them to back off and put their foreign investment into something useful, like renewable energy.

John Edwards, South Grafton

The Message from Yamba....

The type of Clarence River experience that Yamba, Iluka, Maclean and other estuary towns wish to preserve for their families, visitors and holiday makers alike

This is the sort of river experience that the Lower Clarence delights in.....

https://youtu.be/l4AnlDPps40

Not this......

https://youtu.be/6e9_eeNbyqA

NO YAMBA MEGA PORT!

Keeping the pens steeled in Iluka

Clarence Valley Independent, letter to the Editor:

The author of this letter asked me to note that to be factually correct line fourteen should actually have read “28 of the 50 accompanying species that make up the endangered ecological community of which there now exists only 200 hectares in the whole of N.S.W.”

Des Euen warned off Yamba by an online supporter

Not that Des Euen needed any hint that many Yamba and Iluka residents would be against the industrialisation of the Clarence River estuary…..

Facebook, 23 June 2016

Mr. Euen is rather sensitive about the few comments on the Australian Infrastructure Developments Pty Ltd Facebook page.

He recently removed comments from two Clarence Valley residents (at least one of whom attended the “summit” he organised at Casino on 2 June 2016) but left his accusations of selfishness against individuals living in the region which would be most affected by this highhanded attempt to make his fortune at the expense of so many ordinary people.

Fish n Chips not Mega Ships!

"All the major economic sectors in the lower Clarence Valley are dependent to a considerable extent on understanding and protecting the estuary’s and floodplain’s natural processes and values." [DLWC, Umwelt (Australia Pty Ltd, 2003, Clarence Estuary Management Plan: The Clarence Estuary - A Valued Asset]

The economic value of tourism is worth an est. $239.4 million per annum to the Clarence Valley with recreational fishing forming a significant part of the region's income and, in 2010 the commercial fishing industry was worth an est. $92 million annually to the valley.

The economies of the three main towns in the Clarence River estuary are heavily based on commercial and recreational fishing and water-based tourism, with Yamba and Iluka being principal holiday destinations.

Boating is a major recreational activity, with 90% of recreational boating related to fishing and 61% involving retired people. [Clarence Valley Council, 2003]

Fresh seafood caught locally forms part of the staple diet for many Lower Clarence households.

These are the faces of some of the people who threw a line in the last two months:

Bluff Beach, 10 June 2016

Catch at Moriaty’s Wall, 8 June 2016

26 May 2016

31 May 2016

Iluka Beach, 18 May 2016

Off the break wall, 8 June 2016

Brown's Rock, 16 June 2016

[Images from Iluka Bait & Tackle]

However, Australia Infrastructure Developments Pty Ltd and Deakin Capital Pty Ltd - along with Messrs. Des Euen, Thomas Chui, Lee and Nigel Purves - want to destroy this great year-round and holiday lifestyle by lobbying government to allow the 
construction of a large industrial port covering over 27 per cent of the Clarence River estuary.

Thereby severely compromising lower river commercial and recreational fishing grounds with the constant movement in and out of the river of mega ships such as these:

[North Coast Voices, February 2016]

With their bow wave and propeller wash sucking at known seagrass beds as well as riverbanks along the main estuary channels as they pass. 

Many of us who live on the river are firmly of the belief that we would rather have

“Fish n Chips not Mega Ships!”

Brief Background

Long before the arrival of Europeans in the area, local Bundjalung people were fishing the waters of the 'big river' for oysters and fish, as evidenced by the large middens found along the river banks and coastline. The first settlers to the area found a bountiful river surrounded by dense subtropical forests and swamps flowing out to the coastline. Fish were easy to come by and made up an important food source for the early settlers who set about developing forestry and farming in the area. Grafton was established in the 1850’s with the river being a principal source of transport. The introduction of sheep grazing to the area occurred in the late 1850’s and sugar cane farming was carried out as early as 1868 (Anon, 1980a). A small commercial fishery had its beginnings in 1862 when fish were caught to supply workers and their families employed in the construction of the river entrance works. This major project was designed to provide safe navigation for the coastal steamers that traded upriver. Commercial fishermen were supplying fish to the local market by the 1870’s, particularly seasonal fishing for mullet, which was an important local industry supplying the Grafton market (Anon, 1880). The fishing industry began in earnest in 1884 when shipments of fish were sent to Sydney twice a week, weather permitting. The fish, mainly whiting, bream, flat tailed mullet and flathead were packed in ice in large insulated boxes. The boxes were then reused to bring ice on the return trip (Anon, 1994). [Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, A socio—economic evaluation of the commercial fishing industry in the Ballina, Clarence and Coffs Harbour regions, 2009]

o   The commercial industry in Northern NSW provides about one-third of the product (fish) landed in the whole of NSW.

o   An assessment of fish stocks in NSW indicated most fisheries are probably sustainable but that there should be no expansion of catches.

o  The economic modelling results demonstrated that the industry provides quantifiable economic benefits to the Northern NSW region in the form of output, income, employment and value added (gross regional product).

o  The combined harvesting and processing sectors of the industry in Northern NSW provided total flow-on effects of $216 million derived from output, $36.1 million in income, 933 employment positions and $75.5 million in value added.

o   Two-thirds of the money generated by the operation of the industry is spent in the local and regional economies.

o   Commercial fishing activity in the Clarence River occurs in the Estuary General and Estuary Trawl Fisheries.

o   The ocean fleet has home port facilities in both Yamba and Iluka.

o   The Clarence River Fishermen's Co-op operates two depots with Maclean primarily processing catch from the river fishery and Iluka processing catch from the offshore fishery.

o   Ocean Hauling was one of the earliest fisheries to be utilised on the beaches in the Clarence district and continues to be an important fishery in the area.

[Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, 2009 & Clarence Valley Council, 2016]

o   In 2010 Clarence Valley Council estimates that the commercial fishing industry is now worth over $92 million and generates over 430 jobs, while the recreational fishing industry which forms a large part of the $280 million tourism industry in the Valley generates much of the economic base of Yamba, Iluka and Maclean.

o   Due to tourism Yamba and Iluka regularly double their population during major holiday periods and many retired and family holiday makers are thought to be drawn to the area by fishing and other recreational opportunities on the river.

o   Commercial ocean fish and crustacean species both breed and feed in the Clarence River estuary system.

[J.M. Melville, Submission to the Inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on Regional Australia, No. 177, December 2010]

All the major economic sectors in the lower Clarence Valley are dependent to a considerable extent on understanding and protecting the estuary’s and floodplain’s natural processes and values…..

The outstanding threat nominated by the Maclean group was population growth and urban development, particularly where this is located close to the estuary. This is an interesting result, given that the Clarence overall is not an urbanised waterway. It may reflect the rapid changes that are occurring in Yamba, and the view in the community that further growth in this area will require major sustainability issues to be addressed. The appropriate growth rate and style of development in Yamba has been a major source of discussion for residents in the lower Clarence, especially in response to Council’s interpretation of the results of its community survey on the future of Yamba. Several other frequently nominated threats were examples of the types of threats that are associated with poorly managed urban growth that exceeds the capability of the natural system. Declining health of the estuary (from any cause) was perceived as a major threat by the lower Clarence community, acknowledging the high economic dependence on estuary health in this area.

[DLWC, Umwelt (Australia Pty Ltd, 2003, Clarence Estuary Management Plan: The Clarence Estuary - A Valued Asset]

The Clarence Valley Local Government Area’s Gross Regional Product in 2015 was estimated at $1.73 billion, which represents 0.4% of the state's GSP (Gross State Product)