Live with nature, don't fight it

Politicians are found with their snouts in the trough; the Irish are aghast at the findings of an enquiry into government and church children's institutions; we may be bothered at the thought of the retirement age being raised; and our local government may yet again be pleading to put up the rates - but the natural things of the planet just keep on doing whatever it is they do.

Lake Eyre is slowly filling with water coming from North Queensland and birds are flocking there to enjoy the burst of life which springs up from where it has been held in suspended animation for many years.

In much the same way, the wind and the waves are doing what they always do at beaches, blowing and moving sand around, removing sand from one place and depositing it elsewhere.

This is very obvious at Ocean Beach.

In June-July 2007, two-and-a-half to three metres of dune was lost and recently at the end of April another one metre went and is continuing to go, with the beach littered with plants and shrubs.

The people who yet again have cut down the Banksias to improve their view and/or the value of their property may soon get more than they bargained for as the water creeps ever nearer to The Esplanade.

There will be no point in yelling out for help for, as the mayor said in 2007, "it is natural".

A householder on the Gold Coast recently lost 19 metres of his land to the sea.

The developers, letting agents and householders along The Esplanade seem not to understand that they do not have 19 metres to lose.

I sent photographs to the School of Geo-sciences at the University of Sydney and their reply confirmed this.

They explained that variations in the El Nino/La Nina conditions contribute to these periods of erosion and instability and they are multi-decadal, which means that those in power making the decisions are never in office long enough to really see the effects of their decisions.

I believe there is nothing that we can do except make wiser planning decisions along our coastline in future.

Let us hope that we remember all this when we attend workshops about the Brisbane Waters Estuary.

It is first and foremost a natural feature and what we humans want is relevant only if we remember to live with the estuary instead of constantly fighting against it for what we can get out of it.

Margaret Lund, Woy Woy Bay