The whole coastline of NSW was so different before the rutile miners. We (me and me Dad) fished the beaches from The Entrance to Ballina back 45–50 years ago and the coast had high dunes and beautiful billabongs, tea-tree forests and birds. Oh so many birds.
The miners were operating on a small scale but as they pulled all the heavy mineral – I think it was rutile – all the beaches they raped changed very quickly.
As I got older we surfed up and down the coast and saw the same changes. The sand moved faster with the base disturbed.
They made some great rutile tracks that led to some good surf, but that’s another story.
Mark Wato, Billinudgel
