Angus Gordon, North Narrabeen
As lead author of the 1978 Byron Bay-Hastings Point Erosion Study, I would point out that 35 years ago we identified the problems of the coastline in the Byron and Brunswick-South Golden Beach areas, including the issues facing Belongil, then and today.
Our 1978 report outlined the management options available, including withdrawal, and indicated that if, and I stress if, hard engineering solutions were to be used then they needed to be offset with on-going nourishment in order to maintain the public amenity of the beach.
It is an unfortunate illustration of the failure of the NSW government that 35 years later the problem not only still exists but that the community is still left in a no-man’s land of indecision and piecemeal solutions.
If retreat is the answer, then the state needs to provide the support to enable an equitable implementation of the policy.
If defence is the answer then the state needs to facilitate both the protective measures and the offsetting nourishment.
At a time when the state is placing local government under the microscope and touting amalgamations, the state’s long-term failure to solve the erosion issues in NSW begs the question as to whether the local government reform agenda isn’t aimed at deflecting criticism from its own endemic failures.
Should Byron Council be criticised for their handling of the issue over the 35 years? The inescapable answer is yes, however all concerned should have realised that the solutions to the problem were beyond Council’s resources and capabilities.
Far larger and better-resourced councils such as Warringah have also been struggling with a similar problem at Collaroy-Narrabeen for even longer as the first houses were lost at Collaroy in 1926.
In a nutshell, the coastal erosion problems of NSW, and there are now many, are a state matter and require state driven sustainable solutions.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
