Dredging plans 'encouraging'

Plans to dredge the Hardy's Bay entrance, Mudflat Creek and Killcare Marina have been described as "a very encouraging start to the long-awaited rehabilitation of the bay" by Hardy's Bay Residents' Group publicity officer Mr Allan Wilson.

The plans are expected to be included in the Brisbane Water Estuary Plan of Management, which he said had been approved by Gosford Council's coastal and estuary management committee.

Mr Wilson said that high on the list of objectives were those associated with long-term sediment build up in numerous locations within the estuary.

"Our much loved estuary has been neglected and is shrinking, and much of the sediment accumulation is due to ever decreasing volumes of tidal flow now insufficient in many parts of the estuary to carry away fine sediment deposits," said group representative on the committee Mr Graeme Smith.

"This process is ongoing and accelerates with time."

Mr Wilson said that mangrove proliferation was rampant in sediment-affected parts of the estuary.

This added to the problem by slowing tidal sweep along the shorelines and trapping sediments and "all manner of water-borne debris that would otherwise be swept out to sea".

He said that, within the draft Brisbane Water Plan of Management, a sediment plan examined dredging operations in numerous locations within Hardys Bay.

Newsletter, 27 Dec 2010 Allan Wilson, Hardy's Bay Residents' Group