The Gosford Beaches Coastal Zone Management Plan was prepared in accordance with the NSW Government legislation, and in consultation with the Central Coast community.

The plan was certified by the Minister for the Environment in May 2017 and identifies several key management actions for Wamberal Beach, including:

• TW11: Terminal protection- Council to action review, design and funding of terminal protection structure for Wamberal ,
• TW14: Investigation of sources of sand and determination of the feasibility of beach nourishment for Wamberal Beach,
• TW15: Beach nourishment coupled with a terminal revetment to increase the buffer against storm erosion.

The plan outlines a terminal protection structure (seawall) and sand nourishment as the preferred course of action for managing identified coastal hazard threats at Wamberal Beach.

A seawall is one form of coastal protection work. Others include sloping rock walls, dune stabilisation and revegetation. A vertical seawall, combined with sand nourishment, has been identified for Wamberal as the most effective way to both maintain the public beach and protect private property.

Any seawall design must be consistent with the Engineering Design Requirements (EDR). The EDR’s highlight the seawall extent and alignment. The current development application being prepared by private beachfront owners is not finalised Once finalised and lodged via the NSW Planning Portal, anyone will be able to look at the proposal and better understand what it will look like.

It is proposed that the seawall will not extend north of Dover Road and does not include the Wamberal Surf Life Saving Club. 

Feedback received during the MHL Wamberal Beach Terminal Protection and Sand Nourishment - Investigation and exhibition of the Engineering Design Requirements (EDR) resulted in additional criteria for landscaping and aesthetics, which landowners need to address when preparing their seawall design. 

One of the key guiding principles outlined in the EDR states: “The seawall is to include landscaping and materials that blend into the coastal environment and be designed to have a reduced vertical relief following the natural cross section of the foreshore.”

Any proposal for seawall at Wamberal Beach will be assessed against the EDR as part of the development assessment process.

The Engineering Design Requirements (EDR) outline engineering specifications and details such as the minimum footprint, length of construction, material selection, landscaping, and maintenance requirements. These requirements reflect what the community said was of value and importance during the community consultation period after the draft EDR had been developed. 

Following community consultation, Council adopted the EDR on 11 October 2022. These requirements outline specific criteria for the assessment of Wamberal Beach coastal protection development applications in conjunction with the Coastal Management Act 2016.

All development applications for coastal protection works will be assessed against the EDR, along with the extensive other planning requirements during development application assessments.

To achieve a holistic whole of beach design as recommended in Council’s adopted Engineering Design Requirements, Council decided to use the WPA-appointed consultants following review of the project proposals. This approach provides a consistent design and reduces costs for the component of the seawall on public land that is funded by Council. It also ensures Council’s technical experts have input to the whole of beach design and the proposed design protects public beach amenity and access.

The Wamberal Protection Association proposes to lodge three DAs: one for each section of coastal protection works identified in the Engineering Design Guidelines. The first of these DAs, for the middle section of proposed works (DA/371/2024), was submitted on 19 March 2024, and is under review.

Three DAs are proposed for coastal protection works at Wamberal Beach, one for each section of works identified in Council’s adopted Engineering Design Requirements. These DAs are on behalf of all participating landowners (public and private) on Wamberal Beach that are committed to seeking approval for a seawall and ongoing beach nourishment. 

During the public exhibition period for each of the three DAs proposed for Wamberal Beach, submissions can be made by visiting Council’s eservices webpage, emailing ask@centralcoast.nsw.gov.au or writing to PO Box 20, Wyong, 2259. 

The following DAs for coastal protection works at Wamberal Beach have been submitted. These are separate to the WPA-coordinated DA and Council has no role in these as a landowner:

• DA/60944/2021: 85–89 Ocean View Drive, Wamberal. Status: Under Assessment.
• DA/52565/2017: 29, 31 and 33 Pacific Street and 23A, 23B and 25C Ocean View Drive, Wamberal. Status: Approved by Land and Environment Court with conditions.

The Landowners Agreement outlines the terms and conditions under which each landowner (including Council) financially contributes to develop the development application. This ensures funds are appropriately allocated and the appointed consultants provide work to a professional standard. It also ensures Council is legally protected and is delivered services required to progress to development application stage. The agreement was developed by external legal experts to ensure integrity, fairness and transparency and that the DA documentation developed best serves Council in its role in the management of public land.

If approved, property owners will need to prepare detailed design documents consistent with their approved development consent conditions.

Construction programs will then need to be developed in accordance with any Conditions of Consent as required by the determining authority.

If refused, property owners have the following options:

• submit a new DA that addresses the reasons for refusal
• submit an application seeking a reviewing of the refusal
• challenge the determination in the Land and Environment Court
• discontinue the process entirely. 

Other public land along Wamberal Beach includes Crown Land and land owned by the Office of Strategic Lands and managed by Council. Council continues to work with the NSW Government to implement coastal protection measures.

Council will not be determining the development application for this very reason. The determining authority will either be the Central Coast Local Planning Panel, or the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel. These Panels are made up of appointed independent appropriately experienced members, who consider and determine a range of complex applications in accordance with the NSW legislative framework. The Panels seek input on DAs from the public and provide opportunities for members of the public to speak directly to the Panel as part of the determination process.

In accordance with Council’s adopted Council-related Development Applications Conflict of Interest Protocol, Council has developed a Management Statement (see link below) that describes the roles of Council staff in relation to proposed development applications for Wamberal Beach coastal protection works, and how potential conflicts between Council’s role as a landowner for proposed development and as a planning authority are managed.
 

The majority of the seawall is proposed to be located on private land and funded by private landowners. Coastal protection works for private properties (such as seawalls) are subject to a development application process. 

The planning process puts the obligation on any proponent to provide the relevant information to satisfy the determining authority that it is worthy of development consent. If the determining authority is not satisfied with the information provided, they may request more information from the applicant, or refuse the application.

Designs must be developed by a suitably qualified coastal engineer and address site specific hazards including coastal and flooding processes and prepared in accordance with:

• Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979
• Coastal Management Act 2016
• State Environmental Planning Policy (Resilience and Hazards) 2021
• Central Coast Local Environment Plan 2022
• Central Coast Development Control Plan 2022 and
• CCC Wamberal Beach Terminal Protection Structure Engineering Design Requirements 2022

Yes. Council has developed a probity plan and appointed an external probity advisor to manage potential conflicts between Council’s role as an owner of land proposed for part of the seawall and its role in supporting the determining authority in its assessment of whether to grant development consent to the proposal.

This is a familiar process for Council as it often seeks development consent for works on Council land. NSW legislation requires that, while Council planning staff are involved in the assessment of these applications, applications are always referred to an independent determining authority, as part of the probity management process. 

Council has not given or donated money to the WPA or private landowners. In December 2023, Council made a contribution of $100,000 towards the portion of the proposed seawall that is on public land, not for private properties. This is in accordance with Council’s resolutions. The funds cover consultant costs to prepare the development application for Council owned and managed land.

Council resolved on 11 October 2022 to: Confirm that coastal protection works fronting Council-owned land at the beach access ways and Wamberal Surf Lifesaving Club also be governed by the Engineering Design Requirements and make provision for the cost of these works in Council’s Long Term Financial Plan. Further allocations of funds toward the project have been made in Council’s Long Term Financial Plan to allow for potential future construction, should development consent be granted.

Private owners are paying for DA preparation, construction and maintenance costs for their sections of wall on their land.

The reality is, Wamberal Beach is not in a natural state. It is a highly developed environment already with a number of unauthorised ad hoc protection structures in place.. These works consist of emergency and unapproved works and damaged infrastructure, which is unsightly, not designed for long term protection and in many sections extends onto public land.

The current situation at Wamberal Beach comes at significant public cost. Following the July 2020 storms, Council was required to clean up the beach and install emergency protection works at a cost of approximately $2.1 million.

This 2020 coastal erosion event was not rare and has a 50% chance of occurring in any given year. 

These expensive emergency works are a public cost and do not serve best environmental outcomes and are inconsistent with community expectations.

The “do-nothing” case is the current situation at Wamberal Beach. It involves expensive emergency campaigns, unapproved works, and individual development applications being submitted by homeowners which does not result in a holistic solution. Homes along the beach are exposed to coastal erosion and present safety risks to both their occupants and beach users, as well as risks to the environment. 

Council does not have the resources to acquire these properties. Buy back alone along Wamberal Beach is estimated at $500 million to $1 billion. Other costs would include demolition of buildings, disposal to landfill and dune restoration costs. The costs are simply unaffordable and unrealistic. In the past 50 years five properties have been purchased by the NSW Government through the NSW Coastal Lands Protection Scheme. Today’s property values along Wamberal well exceed the Scheme’s annual budget of $3 million. 

For perspective, the Central Coast Council local government area covers over 80km of coastline, Wamberal is approximately 1.5km. Erosion hotspots are identified at many of our beaches and buy back is even less affordable on this larger scale. 

Manly Hydraulics Laboratory has calculated that large-scale sand nourishment for asset protection, instead of a seawall, would require an initial 900,000 cubic metres of sand with an ongoing requirement for a further 200,000 cubic metres every ten years. To date, this has not been feasible due to the lack of accessible sand sources.

The current trial at Stockton is investigating whether it is feasible to dredge sand from the ocean and ‘rainbow’ it onto the beach from a barge. At Stockton there is no private beachfront land. Under current NSW legislation it is only possible to use marine sand for a public purpose. This is not the case at Wamberal, where the primary purpose of mass beach nourishment would be to protect private land. 

Council has also resolved that any private protection works must be funded by private owners on private land. It would be inappropriate for Council to fund offshore sand for private protection. 

Following resolutions of Council, Council has made representations to higher levels of government advocating that mass sand nourishment of areas severely impacted by coastal erosion should be provided to coastal communities. 

The nourishment costs to compensate for natural recession (which is the same amount required with or without a seawall) are significantly less than if mass sand nourishment were proposed as a standalone solution. 

The 2021 MHL Stage 4 Sand Nourishment Investigation investigated the volumes of sand required upfront to offset five different seawall structures. These included:

• Seawall Option 1: Basalt Rock Revetment 252,000 m3 
• Seawall Option 2: Sandstone Rock Revetment 270,000 m3 
• Seawall Option 3: Vertical Seawall ZERO m3 
• Seawall Option 4: Vertical Seawall with Rock Toe ZERO m3 
• Seawall Option 5: Tiered Seawall with Promenade 10,000 m3 

The vertical seawall options resulted in zero upfront sand nourishment as they are located outside of the active beach profile and only interact, as designed, to address wave run up during a storm event and the beach allowed to naturally recover. 

Regardless of any seawall option, 78,000 m3 is required every 10 years to address natural recession (20cm/year) at Wamberal which will incur a cost. This could potentially be provided from marine sand sources, as it would be for a public benefit to maintain the beach, should the trial at Stockton Beach prove successful and transport to Wamberal be financially viable.

The Gosford Beaches Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) outlines a terminal protection structure (seawall) and sand nourishment as the preferred course of action for managing identified coastal hazards at Wamberal Beach. The CZMP underwent community consultation and exhibition. Section 1.4 of the CZMP describes that consultation and appendix 6 details how feedback was considered. The CZMP was adopted by a fully elected Council, endorsed by the NSW Coastal Panel and certified by the Minister in 2017. 

Coastal protection works for private properties (such as seawalls) are subject to a development application process. Development applications must be prepared, assessed and determined in accordance with the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and other relevant legislation, including the Coastal Management Act 2016. Council’s adopted Engineering Design Requirements form part of this assessment framework. 

All development applications are submitted via the NSW Planning Portal which includes an exhibition period which allows the community to formally submit a response to the application. Feedback is then considered as part of the determination of that development application. The application will not be determined by Council and there will be further opportunity for the public to address the determining authority, which will most likely be the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel.

Consultation leading to the adoption of the Gosford Beaches CZMP included:

• Ongoing reference and advice from the Coast and Estuary Management Committee and Coastal Sub-Committee between 2010 and 2015
• Terrigal Wamberal Emergency Action Sub Plan consultation exhibited for 42 days between 25 June 2012 and 3 August 2012. Comments received till 3 September 2012, included 11 written submissions and meetings with Coastal Residents Inc. and the Central Coast Community Environment Network
• Coastal Zone Management Study Consultation: 
  • Draft Coastal Management Study document made available for community review between 15 January and 15 February 2015. 
  • The Draft Study document was made available in hardcopy format at Council’s Erina, Gosford, Kincumber and Woy Woy customer service centres during normal business hours. 
  • The Draft Study document was also available in the Items on Exhibition section of Council’s webpage during exhibition. 
  • Letters sent to 949 property owners identified as being affected by DCP Chapter 6.2 (Coastal Frontage) on 17 December 2014. 
  •  Media Release distributed (week of 12 January 2015) 
  • Promotion of exhibition in Central Coast Express Advocate via Gosford Connect – general info on exhibition (week of 19 January 2015) 
  • Media alert (week of 26 January 2015) 
  • Promotion of exhibition in Central Coast Express Advocate via –specific info on exhibition to include detail/timing of exhibition events (week of 26 January 2015)
  • Council held a series of five community forum sessions in early February 2015 for people interested in learning more about the Gosford City coastline and how it is managed. These sessions aimed to gauge community attitude to management options, before the preferred options were presented in more detail via this CZMP. More than 270 people attended these community forums.
• Coastal Zone Management Plan Consultation:
  • Draft Coastal Management Plan document made available for community review between 21 August and 2 October 2015. 
  • The Draft Plan document was made available in hardcopy format at Council’s Erina, Gosford, Kincumber and Woy Woy customer service centres during normal business hours.
  • The Draft Plan was also available in the Items on Exhibition section of Councils webpage during exhibition. 
  • Letters sent to 949 property owners identified as being affected by DCP Chapter 6.2 (Coastal Frontage) on 14 August 2015. 
  • Emails sent to more than 170 groups and individuals on the project contacts database informing them of exhibition details. 
  • Public Notices were placed in the Central Coast Express Advocate on 21 August and 4 September 2015 to inform the public of the place at which, the dates on which, and the times during which, the draft CZMP could be inspected by the public. 
  • Media Release distributed (5 August 2015) 
  • Promotion of exhibition in Central Coast Express Advocate via Gosford Connect – general info on exhibition (14 August 2015). 
  • Council held a series of five community drop-in sessions to seek public feedback on the proposed management actions and for residents to have a say and find out more about how coastal hazards will be managed now and into the future. There were 85 people recorded in attendance during these sessions.
• Public Authority Consultation:
  • NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI - Lands) 
  • NSW Planning & Environment 
  • NSW Office of Environment & Heritage (National Parks & Wildlife Service) 
  • NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW Fisheries) 
  • NSW Roads & Maritime Services 
  • Greater Sydney Metropolitan Local Land Services 
  • Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council 
  • Guringai Aboriginal Tribal Links

The CZMP was adopted by a fully elected Council in 2015. Part of the certification process for the CZMP involved the review of its suitability for certification under the Coastal Protection Act 1979 (current legislation at the time) by the expert Coastal Panel. The Panel considered the draft CZMP in 2016, commended Council on the quality of the document and advised it was suitable for certification, with minor amendments unrelated to Wamberal Beach management. Meeting minutes can be found in the links below.

The CZMP was certified by the Minister for the Environment in 2017 with the amendments required by the Coastal Panel.

Part of the certification process for the CZMP involved the review of its suitability for certification under the Coastal Protection Act 1979 (current legislation at the time) by the expert Coastal Panel. During the time of the review, in 2016, Angus Gordon (Chair), Professor Bruce Thom and Professor Andrew Short were all members of the Panel and reviewed the draft Gosford Beaches CZMP.

At the time, the Panel commended Council on the quality of the document and advised it was suitable for certification, including the recommendation for coastal protection works and sand nourishment at Wamberal Beach. Meeting minutes can be found in the links below.

Council is progressing Wamberal Beach actions in accordance with its adopted and certified CZMP. As part of this process, and with funding from the NSW Government’s coast and estuary grants program, Council engaged Manly Hydraulics Laboratory to undertake an extensive body of work to identify the preferred option for coastal protection works. This detailed body of work found that a vertical seawall structure was likely to provide improved public and environmental outcomes compared to the sloping rock revetment contemplated in the CZMP, as it maximised the area available for public beach access and reduced interaction with active beach processes. This led to the adoption of the Wamberal Beach Terminal Protection Structure Engineering Design Requirements (see link below), which identified the engineering specifications, alignment and crest height required for future protection works. These guidelines are outcome focused and do not specify a particular design solution. 

Once a development application for coastal protection works is prepared, which will include the proposed design and supporting information about how any potential impacts of the proposed development are to be managed, it will be assessed for alignment with the CZMP and the more detailed work undertaken since the CZMP was certified and will be determined by an independent planning panel. There will also be opportunity for the community and experts to provide submissions on the development application, which must be addressed by the applicant and considered by the determining authority.
 

Flooding in the lagoons is typically associated with a high rainfall event, rather than a coastal erosion event. The level of floodwater in the lagoons is mainly related to the water being held back by the buildup of sand on the beach when the lagoon is closed. The potential flood levels in the lagoons without intervention are very high, which can flood many roads and properties, but Council mechanically opens the lagoons with earth moving machinery to help prevent the lagoons from being flooded at very high levels. This is carried out according to an opening procedure.

Flood risks must be addressed as part of any development application. 

A seawall design and associated environmental assessment have not yet been lodged as part of a development application and are therefore unavailable for further review. It is not possible to determine the potential impacts of the proposal until that detail is released. An assessment of potential impacts will be undertaken as part of the development assessment process. The public will also have the opportunity to review the development application documentation, prior to determination, and provide feedback.

Assessment of flood risk is a compulsory part of the development assessment process. It is up to the determining authority to advise whether it considers that the applicant has provided sufficient detail in its flood impacts risk assessment. During the assessment of the development application, the relevant authority will consider the location, footprint and terminal end design of the structure, and whether additional flood risk assessment is required.