Wharf Road Coastal Zone Management Plan

The Wharf Road Coastal Zone Management Plan (the Plan) was certified by the Minister for the Environment on 4 June 2018.

Location

The Wharf Road area is on the northern sandy shoreline of Batemans Bay, 480 metres downstream of the Princes Highway bridge over the Clyde River.

The back beach area at Wharf Road is low lying and subject to immediate coastal inundation and erosion hazards. The NSW Government has identified this part of Batemans Bay as a coastal erosion hotspot, requiring the preparation of a Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) and Emergency Action Sub-plan.

Objective

The Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) contains a set of management aims, objectives and actions that will protect and enhance the natural foreshore, while promoting public access to, and use of, the waterway.

Hazard assessments undertaken by past studies have identified that the Wharf Road east precinct is a high-hazard zone due to the effects of both coastal inundation and periodic shoreline erosion.

The primary objective of this plan is to ensure that future management of the Wharf Road east precinct is compatible with its current and future hazard levels.

Strategies

The management strategies enacted to date by Council are:

  • Emergency Action Sub-plan: A draft Emergency Action Sub-plan for the Wharf Road Coastal Erosion Hotspot was adopted by Council on 24 July 2012.
  • Zoning: Council has acted to zone the whole of the subject land 'E2 Environmental Conservation' under the Eurobodalla Local Environmental Plan 2012 in accordance with the recommendations of BMT WBM Pty Ltd. This zone was applied to wetlands, littoral rainforests and some foreshore areas across Eurobodalla. The strategy aims to avoid current and future risk by preventing development unsuited to a high hazard coastal area.

Community engagement

Community engagement about the use of the Wharf Road area has been ongoing since 2004 with the preparation of an Estuary Management Study and Plan for the Batemans Bay and Clyde River Estuary. This engagement was broad in scope.

More localised public comments were lodged with Council in response to a proposal for development of a number of residential units at Wharf Road east. This provided Council with an opportunity to examine the values that the community placed on the Wharf Road locality.

In developing the Wharf Road Coastal Hazard Assessment and Hazard Management Plan, our consultants held a public information meeting in Batemans Bay. Five submissions and one petition were received by Council following the information meeting.

Engagement with the community and NSW Government agencies on the management of this area continued with the public exhibition of the Emergency Action Sub-plan for the Wharf Road Coastal Erosion Hotspot, for a period of 28 days, concluding on 4 July 2012. One submission was received during the exhibition period.

The draft CZMP was on public exhibition for a period of 21 days. All written submissions received were taken into consideration by Council prior to submitting the Plan to the Minister for certification.

Downloads

A report prepared prior to the CZMP investigated a range of options to mitigate coastal erosion at Wharf Road, Batemans Bay, inclusive of constructing rock walls and backfilling the area.

More information

For more information, contact Council's Coast and Flood Management Planner on: