I heard today on the radio of a proposal from the local council to build a huge marina at Brighton Le Sands - this can't be good for the local windsurfing community - anyboby know anything more about this?

DavMen

The local papers have shown this a few times, and it looks like Rockdale council is just trying to make itself look important. I don't see how a marina there is going to make the place any better. If anything it will just ruin the environment for people that picnic there and possibly us.

I don't think there really has been that much thought put into how this affects recreational users of the bay.

As it is, parking there is a nightmare, especially when you consider that the Grand Parade is main road running right through the middle and during peak hour it can be crazy. Why add even more cars?

The thing that I worry about is that if you ask the casual, non-windsurfing, non-boating, non-fisherman, non-picnicer, they probably think it is a wonderful idea.

Not to mention the desalination plant at Kurnell which will probably have some impact on sailing at Botany and maybe even at Wanda and the proposed extension of Port Botany which will impact sailing on the other side and almost whole of Botany Bay will be lost to sailing. Well at least no more umming and ahhing about whether to take the drive down south or get frustrated at Longy....

boris, it's called corporate greed...
... I don't see how any corporate developments like that will make your average persons life any better. It sounds too me like a massive development put in place by council men with inflated egos all corpurted , ahm I mean supported by a number of large developers. When you look at the planning submissions alone I would say they have already spend in the millions just for the proposal. The entire project would cost in billions.

I also wouldn't be surprised if there is already a plan in place to move the airport by 2020... who knows, if the impact of climate change is as bad as predicted there probably won't be any motorboats or jet skis around anymore by then.

Next to go should be Coronation Beach followed by the Club Med development down at Gerroa... mark my words.

Mind you, better a club med than 500 Appartments or medium density housing like up at Kingscliff. But I thought someone mentioning that it is a Golf resort that is planned for the stretch south of Gerroa. Again, rather a Golfcourse than housing, at least a GC won't impact the wind like those highrises did on the Northern Beaches...

saw it on the news about 20 seconds ago, looks pretty crazy!

hi easty, slightly off topic but.

your solution may be in front of you....

"home" to endangered spotted hand fish and numerous wading birds who fly down from siberia to breed.....

that should help stop things in their tracks. find yourself a friendly EPA windsurfer and you may have a chance to fight them on the beaches.

Don't forget the port expansion that is going to destroy the sailing spot on the eastern side of the airport that is used for those autumn westerlies.

Harrow, if the rich guy in his cruizer is like all the other boating and jet ski idiots down there at the moment, better make sure you are wearing a life vest... you are more than likely going to get run over, then yelled at and finally left for dead...

glad to hear that easty. hope it goes well.


the proposed development at brighton does look very nice. impressive architecture to say the least.

?

crash landing,

they will redirect the traffic. The area around Brighton will become a "reduced traffic" zone probably meaning they will close it for any through traffic. The re-routed traffic will flow via the main road west of Brighton (can't remember what it's called).

In a NEer the chop is indeed a bit better down at dolls but the wind is definitly 5 to 10 knts. stronger further north near the run way. Dolls is also good in a strong straight northerly. Doesn't happen to often but when it does the chop just off Dolls point is great for jumps. No sure how the pier would influence that though.

I agree that it's not a nice looking bit of Sydney. But in a southerly and NEer it's definetly the windiest of all Sydney spots. Also, don't forget that it's fairly safe for beginners to intermediates (even in a strong wind) compared to any of the harbour or open ocean locations.

Crash Landing,

take a look at the photo here:

www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=2743

From the photo you can see that the pier comes out where the Shell Gas stations currently is. Building will be located on that section of the pier. I would guess it will stick out by about 250 meters.

The NEer might not be effected (but that remains to be seen). Southerly will definetly be gusty right behind the pier. You might experience a funnel between the seawall and the airport runway though.

famous words from the mayor candidate for Porpoise Spit, Bill "the battler" Hislop ,

"you cant stop progress"

Stehsegler, the golf course proposed for Gerroa is not going to be in the national park (on the beach front), but on the land located on the western side of the road that leads down to Shoalhaven Heads.

The only good thing is that it won't affect the wind in any way. But the crowds at the beach,and in the water, will cause many problems. They already do.

There is a lot of opposition to this development.
The problem is, developments of this size seem to be able to bypass council approval, and go straight to the NSW planning minister,which happens to be Frank Sator. Kiama Council are in fact dead against this proposal. They want to protect the area from sh!tty developments like this.
However, Shoalhaven Council, who control the other half of that stretch of land, don't seem to give a sh!t.

As with the Windang wall proposal, we will be throwing some punches. we should be more noticable this time because its not just sailors that will have a problem with it. This really is a hideous pile of sh!t to be dumped into what we all know is an awesome natural area.
But, the developers (Cleary Brothers construction company) wouldn't give a sh!t about anything but their own back pockets.

The opposition to this should be much more vocal. We will certainly be getting as many NSWWA members to send in their objection, and hopefully many more.
There is no way that any local resident would think that this is a good idea. Public consultation is starting to surface, but they don't exactly bring a lot of attention to it, knowing the opposition they would face.

Will keep you posted.