Despite Clrs Rose Wanchap, Sol Ibrahim, Di Woods and others warning Byron Shire Council that the geobags at Belongil beach are now falling to bits and that plastic particles from them will be ingested by turtles, and other marine and bird life, seven rolls of geotech material have been placed in Manfred Street presumably by Hardings since it is next to their excavator. See attached photograph. You will see the Hardings excavator behind the rolls.
For more details on the material called Textcel (manufactured from either Polyester and/or Polypropylene fibres) and manufactured by Geofabrics, see the website. Each of the seven rolls is 6metres long and each roll is 50 metres wide and 1 centimetre in thickness. Do the maths. 7 by 6 by 50 = 2,100 square metres of Texcel to be laid on the beach.
And if you go to the beach you will see that 95% of the Geobags are in excellent condition – certainly not falling apart.
Jim Beatson, Byron Bay
Spot on Jim. Thanks for the alert. More data to underscore all their lies. Like Abbott they take the community for idiots. It was never about failing geobags and always about shoring up 2 properties adjoining Council access to the beach. I notice in the News that Flannery’s Elements now has a request in to Council to rock up the beach in front of their development?? I could see this coming, as the Belongil rocks will certainly cause further damage to the north of the spit. And so it goes. Surely we will have new and responsible Council before approval is given to continue rocking up the entire length of Byron’s once iconic beach!!?? The beginning of the end for Byron Bay as a tourist attraction if this continues.
The river mouth of the Belongil Creek has moved north by at least 300 to 400 metres in the last 40 years (I have lived here 50 years). Of course putting a barrier on the southern side of Belongil Creek will not stop the mouth of the creek moving north and may actually increase the erosion process. I have seen the damage to the dunal system from cyclones over the years ,the worst being 1974 and less so in the 1989 cyclone. The ocean temperature at the moment is 3 degrees above normal for this time of year and I fear we may be back into the cyclone cycle for this southern area ?
For people that haven’t seen a cyclone at Byron Bay you will be in for a big shock.