Clarence Valley Open Coast Coastal Management Program

Council is preparing a Coastal Management Program (CMP) for the Clarence Valley Open Coast. We have completed Stage 3 (Identification and Evaluation of Options). Thank you to everyone who provided feedback during the public exhibition period. Council will review the feedback received from the community and other stakeholders and develop strategies, actions and tasks to be included in the CMP (Stage 4).

Background:

In March 2021, Council completed the Scoping Study for the CMP (available for download from this page). The study area for the CMP includes the open beaches, foreshores and coastal waters of the Clarence Valley Local Government Area (including Woody Head, Iluka, Yamba, Angourie, Brooms Head, Sandon, Minnie Water, Diggers Camp and Wooli) and the estuaries and lagoons of Lake Cakora, Lake Arragan, Sandon River and Wooli Wooli River. The study area excludes the Clarence River estuary and its catchment but includes the area from the Clarence River entrance to Whiting Beach. Wooloweyah Lagoon is being included in the future CMP for the Clarence River estuary as the lagoon is a part of the broader Clarence River estuary and many of the issues are similar and/or related to the broader estuary. The development of the Clarence River Estuary CMP is running in parallel to this Coastline CMP (see link on this page).

As part of the development of the CMP Scoping Study, feedback was obtained through a community survey and other feedback tools on the Clarence Conversations webpage. The feedback we received provided a good snapshot of community opinion about the study area including popular activities and locations of current issues, management priorities and the community’s vision for the future of the coastline and estuaries. The feedback has been used to guide the focus of the CMP.

Word cloud generated from the survey respondents’ vision of the Clarence Valley’s coastline and estuaries in 10 years

Stage 2 (detailed studies into risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities) was completed in November 2023 (available for download from this page). This included mapping of coastal hazards along the entire coastline with detailed analysis of beach erosion, coastal recession and coastal inundation hazards for current and emerging high-risk locations. Stage 2 also included a review of slope stability risks at Pilot Hill, Convent Beach and Cakora Point.

Stage 3 of the CMP includes development and assessment of management options to address the issues identified in Stages 1 and 2 and identification of recommended management options. The draft CMP document is expected to be available for public exhibition and further feedback during mid-2024.

The five-stage process for developing a coastal management program (OEH, 2018)

Stakeholder engagement is an important component of each stage of the CMP development. Keep an eye on this page for new information. At all stages, the community is welcome to post questions and feedback on this page.