5 Community Conversations at one Open Day

Saturday 14 March 10am-noon
Progress Hall. 197 Skye Point Rd
(Parking at Gurranba Reserve)

1. Grow Me Instead Display - Protecting Coal Point’s Living Web

An important Open Day conversation centres on something slowly disappearing all around us, our biodiversity. Globally, species are disappearing at unprecedented rates. Habitat is shrinking. Ecosystems are under pressure.

And yet here on the Coal Point peninsula, we are in a rare and precious window of time. We still have extraordinary diversity in our yards, reserves and verges. Bushes, shrubs, trees, groundcovers, grasses, insects, birds, possums, fungi and flying foxes, all the intricate threads that form the web of life.

Some of it is obvious. Some lies hidden in dormant seed banks beneath lawns, but it is still here. Given the chance, it returns. Our local landscape has strong regenerative capacity. Birds move through the canopy spreading seed and maintaining genetic diversity. Life is ready. The question is, will we make room for it?

The garden escape problem

At the Open Day a Grow Me Instead display will highlight common weeds across the peninsula.

Some are already established in bushland. Others remain mostly in gardens but have the potential to escape.

Once certain species move beyond the fence line, they outcompete local natives, alter soil conditions, suppress regeneration and reduce habitat complexity for wildlife.

That’s why we need local heroes. Native species that provide nectar, pollen, fruit and shelter. Plants adapted to our soils and climate extremes. Species that strengthen the genetic diversity of our isolated peninsula.

What you’ll see at our Landcare team’s display:

• Common environmental weeds

• Garden plants to keep under watch

• Recommended native replacements

Bring a sample or photo of a mystery plant and we’ll help identify it.

Have the conversation about why small decisions matter, the verge planting, the creeper allowed to spread, the clippings dumped in the reserve. Each choice either strengthens or weakens the web of life.

We will also take orders for autumn plantings, where cooler soil and better rainfall makes for strong establishment before summer.

Join the conversation. Let’s strengthen the strands of our living web.

2. Progress Hall Access, Inclusion and the Next Chapter

In 1951, the people of Coal Point built Progress Hall through garden parties, fundraising and working bees. For more than seventy years it has hosted dances, concerts, meetings and celebrations. It is owned by the community, not council.

But expectations have changed. Accessibility standards have strengthened, community understanding of inclusion has grown. What was once acceptable no longer meets contemporary standards.

If the Hall is to serve everyone into the future, we must plan for it now with a strategic approach.

This year, CPPA will develop a detailed Disability and Access Plan, with a staged, strategic framework that assesses the current limitations, identifies best-practice solutions, integrates building and landscape design and positions the CPPA to apply for grant funding to implement the design.

We are seeking expertise from landscape architects, design specialists, surveyors and grant writers.

More than compliance, accessible design benefits everyone; parents with prams, less mobile residents, hall users moving equipment. Good access is good design.

At the Open Day we invite imagination. What could be possible? Seamless pathways, integrated landscape design or flexible outdoor spaces. The Hall was built by the community. Its next chapter will be shaped by the community too. If you can't make it to the open day and are interested in contributing to the discussion, register your interest here

3. Dancing Through the Decades with music, movement and community.

When Progress Hall was built, it was designed for dancing, with a raised stage, sprung timber floor, and plenty of room to roam with razzle and dazzle.

This year we want to bring that intention back to life with Dancing Through the Decades, a celebration of music from the 1950s to the 2020s across eight events.

And who better to provide the soundtrack than our own community? Coal Point is rich with talented musicians. Bands. Duos. Solo artists. Some gig regularly, others may just need the right invitation...you’re invited!

The concept is that each event will include a dance instructor to guide a few moves from the era, nothing formal, just enough to get started, then the floor is yours.

Dancing dissolves age barriers, it builds connection without saying a word and is good for the brain and the body.

If you would like to attend, perform, organise or suggest some songs for a decade, come to the Open Day or get in touch through this Expression of interest form.

Let’s fill the Hall with music and dance again. 

4. From Brighton Avenue to a Nature-Positive Future

Thinking Ahead of the Curve

Some conversations take years. In 2016, a DA for 2 Brighton Avenue/133 Excelsior Pde proposed removal of 215 of 218 trees on the block. Community concern was strong with 133 submissions and the matter progressed to the Land and Environment Court. The amended proposal retained 31 trees in keeping with Council’s recommendation “the applicant should give strong consideration to retaining continuous canopy vegetation to conserve scenic amenity to the Toronto Bay area”

As the implementation of the DA works began with the gruesome grind of the arborist’s arsenal it has again highlighted how confronting canopy loss can be. Biodiversity decline rarely happens in one sweep. It happens incrementally, tree by tree.

Across the Coal Point peninsula, connected canopy corridors allow wildlife to glide, flit and forage between the Spotted Gum Open Forest, remnant rainforest gullies and Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest. When those corridors are thinned or broken, fragmentation compounds and safe movement through the landscape becomes harder with each passing year.

The bigger picture

In February, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released its Business and Biodiversity Assessment.

Its message is clear. Biodiversity loss is not just environmental. It affects economic systems, property values and community resilience. Nature underpins everything. The report calls for shifting financial flows toward protection and regeneration, not simply managing decline.

A local response?

One Open Day conversation will explore the idea of a local Green Investment Fund.

Not an offset scheme or a protest mechanism but a proactive investment model supporting habitat protection and restoration, linking of wildlife corridors and collaborative and sustainable housing

This would require careful design and collaboration. It is not about stopping development. It is about recognising biodiversity as living infrastructure.

The Brighton Avenue story reminds us that decisions today shape canopy cover for decades. How do we move from reacting to shaping? Join the conversation or register you interest in the project here.

5. Fortify Your Foreshore

Walk the waterfront after a storm and you can see the change. Exposed roots. Slumping banks. Sections of foreshore that are quietly disappearing. The foreshore is under pressure.

This year, CPPA proposes a workshop series titled Fortify Your Foreshore. You can register your interest in the workshops here.

Workshop One – Where and When

Where is the foreshore? It is not a fixed line. It shifts over time with water levels, storm surge, sediment movement and vegetation change.

Experts, historical mapping and current mapping will help demonstrate where the foreshore sits now and where it may move in future.

Workshop Two – What and Why

The foreshore is the transition zone between land and lake. Water meets soil. Roots bind banks. Fish shelter. Birds feed. It is one of the most biologically rich areas in the landscape.

Healthy foreshores absorb wave energy, filter runoff, protect property and safeguard water quality. When degraded, impacts ripple outward.

Workshop Three – Who and How

Responsibility for the foreshore is shared between landholders, Council and State agencies. But practically, one property owner’s actions affect their neighbour.

Hard structures can deflect wave energy. Clearing vegetation can accelerate erosion. We will explore soft engineering approaches such as strategic native planting and appropriate structural responses.

Protecting foreshores is not a single-property issue. It is a whole-of-community project. If you live by the water, walk the shoreline or care about the health of our lake, this conversation is for you.

Complete the Expression of Interest form to keep in touch about the event.

World Wetlands Day 2/2/19

The Earth’s climate is changing due to increased amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and

other green house gases (GHG) in the atmosphere due to human activity.

The global community is acting via the Paris agreement to stabilise and reduce GHG to limit the increase in global average temperature and in turn will reduce the number of extreme weather events. We all need to play a part to fix the problem, and there are solutions.

Protecting wetlands is one of the keys to coping with climate change. We are not powerless against climate change. Wetlands help us prepare for, cope with and bounce back from the impacts of climate change. Wetlands come in a variety of forms. Locally we have been protecting and expanding the small wetland remnants at Carey Bay, a Swamp-Oak Forest. Wetlands also include mangroves and seagrasses.

The Carey Bay Wetland acts like a sponge absorbing floodwaters during storms, if you walk through it you’ll realise how wet it stays long after the rains have left. Wetlands naturally absorb and store carbon; they are the most effective carbon sinks on Earth.

We also have seagrass meadows along our foreshore acting as a buffer from extreme weather, reducing the intensity of waves and storm surges. Seagrasses also absorb carbon 35times faster than rainforests. Do you have an environmentally friendly mooring that protects our seagrass beds? Want to help the planet…one mooring at a time?

Would you like to fortify your foreshore? Casuarinas are nature’s own shock absorbers, these whispering warriors are prepared to be the front line of defence against storm surges and offer property protection. If you’re noticing your foreshore eroding the CPPA is growing some Casuarinas from locally collected seed and we can put one aside for you to help protect your water frontage.

Living on the Edge

The results of the Sustainable Neighbourhood survey of Toronto, Carey Bay, Coal Point and Kilaben Bay showed that the most highly rated considerations was the need to “protect and improve the natural environment” followed closely by the need for access to parks, beaches, bushland and other natural areas”.  

With this Chronicle is a copy of our council's LIVING ON THE EDGE brochure.

While this appears to be aimed mainly at lake foreshore homes it's good to remember that several of our reserves are not on foreshore eg  Burnage, the Ridge Reserves and Carey Bay Wetlans with its catchment creeks.

The suggestions in the brochure about ways to protect reserves apply to all homes in our area as seeds from very invasive plants in gardens fly through the air and flow with drainage. This causes big problems in reserves which local landcarers struggle to manage especially in the bushland areas we so much appreciate.

On the Waterfront

Being a waterfront community it’s not surprising that queries arise from time to time about who can do what and where along the foreshore.

The Progress Association has been sifting through two areas of late, dinghy management and foreshore fencing.

How far can your fence go?

With regard to fences the LMCC DCP 3.1 Lake, Waterway and Coastline Development document outlines what is permissible.

The overall aim is that structures such as fences, walls and enclosures are restricted in height, location and materials, to limit any potential for adverse visual impact, environmental impact, scenic quality or accessibility.

In order to achieve this aim

• the height of any fence or wall or enclosure within a Foreshore Building Line can not exceed 1.2 metres. 
• The fence, wall or enclosure can not be constructed of masonry.
• No part of the fence, wall or enclosure can be within 6 metres of DHWM
• No fencing, wall or enclosure extends into the Lakefront Area Development Zone.
• Fencing, walls or enclosures in the Lakefront Area Development Zone are no higher than 1.2 metres.

This link will take you to the DCP with all the details

The Dinghy Dilemma

Another item that was investigated was what to do about dinghies. LMCC has a succinct Dinghy Management Policy that defines a dinghy as a single hulled vessel up to 4m long. It also describes what is not a dinghy and includes vessels such as catamarans, canoes and sailboats.

The policy allows dinghies to be stored on public land as they are essential for accessing moored vessels and to enjoy the Lake. The policy also states that storage is not to impact on native vegetation, established groves or individual trees or impede access to or along the shoreline.

The Progress Association is keen to investigate what options for storage of dinghies are possible within our reserves. Council will regulate storage where environmental and safety issues emerge and CPPA is looking for a long term solution that addresses all of the issues and needs of the community.

If anyone is interested in being on a working group to pursue this matter please contact the CPPA. We are investigating funding options for storage and there are several rather large (but interesting) hoops to jump through to achieve an outcome.

The Dinghy Management Policy can be found online. 

Can Council help…Yes they Can

It’s hard to imagine that in our community there are still some people that believe that they can do what-ever they want , wherever they want without regard for neighbours, the environment or the planning laws that everyone else has to abide by.

The role of Council in addressing community concerns has been highlighted recently in addressing the illegal actions of one person who erected a timber stairway to the waterfront without any planning consent, felled a dozen mature gum trees on a steep slope without any consent, started building a 30m jetty without any consent, erected a fence out in to the lake and piled construction waste on to the foreshore, and constructed a deck and fence which extended on to the neighbour’s land.

The consequences of such actions mean the hillside slides gracefully into the lake because there is nothing holding it together, the foreshore is compromised and neighbourly harmony is non-existent.

This is where Council can help. Lake Macquarie Council has a strong reputation for striving to protect the environment and upholding their planning instruments, it is why they exist. The process also needs community people to raise the issue and instigate the action so Council officers can take action. 

If you see something that you feel is not right, write it down and let Council know. Sometimes you may think what is happening is so outrageous someone must have reported it, but it never hurts to flick a quick email to council@lakemac.nsw.gov.au  or take a photo and record the events as for future reference.