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The Central Coast has bountiful beaches, bushland and ancient culture – the region is on its way to achieving recognition as a world-class destination for sustainable, nature-based tourism – so the local and state government’s penchant for crass tourist attractions and concrete is difficult to explain.
By Jackie Pearson
Have you ever stopped to think about how majestic the Central Coast would have been prior to English invasion in 1788? The ocean and the bush provided endless fresh food. The sandstone escarpments gave shelter and spring-fed fresh water was abundant. This paradise with its lakes, valleys, mountains, streams and beaches was home to many First Nations people and, if you look closely, their heritage can still be found all around.
Aboriginal man, Phil Pulbrook, tells the story of Baiame, the Creator, who the Sydney Ghost Gums would follow around. “That’s why the Ghost Gums grow so straight and then bend out at the top. When Baiame stepped off back into the sky at Mount Yengo, the Ghost Gums reached out to him. They were such good friends that the trees asked him to lift them up and take them with him.”
Most of the cultural knowledge has been destroyed or lost over the past 250 years. Early settlers reported midden, piles of shells accumulated over many years, metres high. Remnants can still be found on our shorelines. The rock art sites around the Coast run into the thousands. The region has many sacred and significant landscapes.
The natural beauty of the Coast and this rich cultural heritage would, surely, “sell itself” to Australian and international travellers if appropriately preserved and promoted. This area has sites as inspiring as those in revered locations. Uluru, Kakadu, Juukan Gorge spring to mind, or, on an international scale, the Coast holds secrets thousands of years older than the pyramids or Stonehenge.
It is difficult to explain why, in the midst of all this cultural and natural potential, the staff of the Central Coast Council, backed by the NSW Government and its tourism entities, seem hell bent on tacky gimmicks, fads and concrete – yes, concrete, acres of it – apparently to attract the tourist dollar.
One classic example of the struggle between concrete and culture/nature is the ongoing debate over Winney Bay, located between Copacabana and Avoca. Known to many as nothing more than the location of a massive ocean outfall for semi-treated sewage, Winney Bay has deep cultural significance to local Aboriginals. Its easterly elevation makes for stunning views.
Once a year Winney Bay is part of the 5 Lands Walk, an event described as “a physical, spiritual and cultural journey. A gift to you from the communities and sponsors of the Central Coast. A place where no one is excluded. A place where family, friends and the wider community are encouraged to celebrate life, have fun and connect to our deep Aboriginal history, European settlement, and who we are today.”
According to the 5 Lands Walk website, “in doing so we take a step to create a more harmonious and inclusive society on the Central Coast and beyond.” The 5 Lands Walk has been held since 2006 on the Saturday closest to the winter solstice as the whales are on their northern migration.
Since initially publishing this article President of the 5 Lands Walk, Ms Pauline Wright, has contacted thepoint.net.au to state that it misrepresents the project. We will be organising an interview with Ms Wright at the earliest possible convenience. Stay tuned for the update.
Special place
We need to go back to 2012 to find the origins of the battle for Winney Bay. That was when the original 5 Lands Walk masterplan was drawn up. According to one of the Winney Bay Warriors, who have been campaigning to protect the natural state of Winney Bay since 2017, Joy Cooper, “The original 5 Lands Walk masterplan 2012 clearly shows there was a bush trail going through Winney Bay”.
It is claimed the grand vision of a new lookout-platform-bridge over a 100 metre crevasse could represent a “reconciliation” between Aboriginals and Captain Cook. Some local Aboriginals, including Pulbrook, do not want the area touched and surely, by 2020, it may be appropriate to consider changing the name of the lookout.
Heritage
Pulbrook says he had to be formally introduced, at age eight, to the land at Winney Bay by his mother to be able to go fishing there and to pass through the country.
“There are sacred sites at Winney Bay that I was told about when I was 13, now I am 56. I am a story holder. I cannot overstep my boundaries and there are too many bower birds bastardising our stories,” Pulbrook says.
“Mudda earth will teach us that when human beings play around with things they shouldn’t, she will come back stronger. That is what has happened with things like the coastal erosion at Wamberal and in Queensland right now.
“I would like people of all walks of life to join us to protect the precious things that we have here.
“My mother used to say everyone is welcome at our table. I am not saying I am a custodian of this land. I am just saying we need to protect what we have for our children,” Pulbrook says.
Nature
Dr Leslie Hughes, Chair of the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee, reports that clifftop locations like Winney Bay are home to Ecologically Endangered Communities (EECs) of Themeda Grassland.
“In view of the highly restricted distribution, small patch size and ongoing threats to the community, the Scientific Committee is of the opinion that Themeda grassland on seacliffs and coastal headlands … is likely to become extinct in nature in NSW unless the circumstances and factors threatening its survival cease to operate.”
The structure of the Themeda grassland community is typically closed tussock grassland, open shrubland or open heath with a grassy matrix between the shrubs. Dr Hughes said “the community is characterised by the following assemblage of species Acacia sophorae, Banksia integrifolia subspecies integrifolia, Commelina cyanea, Glycine clandestine, Glycine microphylla, Hibbertia scandens, Isolepis nodosa, Kennedia rubincunda, Lepidosperma spp, Leptospermum laevigatum, Lomandra longifolia, Monotoca elliptica, Opercularia aspera, Pimelea linifolia, Poranthera microphylla, Sporobolus vrginicus, Themeda australis, Viola banksii and Westringia fruticose.
“The total species list of the community is considerably larger than that given above, with many species present at only one or two sites, in low abundance,” Dr Hughes said.
“At any one time, above ground individuals of some species may be absent, but the species may be represented below ground in soil seed backs or as dormant structures such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, rootstocks or lignotubers.”
The presence of Themeda grassland is another reason why the Winney Bay Warriors want to keep any “upgrade” of the lookouts and tracks at Winney Bay as natural as possible.
“It would be lovely to have a bush trail through the EEC,” Ms Cooper said. “And there already is a bush trail through there but there has been no removal of super weeds like bitou bush so the threat to the EEC is real,” she said.
Progress?
Between 2012 and 2015, the original masterplan concept “morphed” according to Cooper, “from a bush trail into a concrete track wide enough for vehicle access, with retaining walls, market stalls, a cantilevered wedding destination platform and a whale bridge over the crevasse.
“If they stuck to the original masterplan there would not have been the objections that there have been,” she said.
A track was built from the top of Winney Bay down to an existing fire trail in 2015 without a great deal of push back from the community. Then in 2017, another of the Winney Bay Warriors was on a bushwalk through the area when she stumbled across the beginnings of a significant piece of infrastructure which didn’t quite join up with the 2015 enhancements at the northern end and stopped a significant distance away from Captain Cook Lookout at the southern (Copa) end.
“One would have to ask, why did they start building a walkway in the middle of the bushland so the concrete doesn’t connect up to anything?” Cooper asks.
Phase two
Winney Bay at the northern end of Copacabana is also known as Bulbararing Headland (perhaps a more sensitive name for the existing Captain Cook lookout) and, from that vantage point, the land is part of the Coastal Open Space System (COSS).
The COSS land, in this instance, is owned by Central Coast Council with some Crown Land mixed in. The massive concrete steps and railings spring out in front of you as you meander along a bush track, heading north. The area is heavily infested with bitou bush. Federal funding was received for the wide concrete pathway, elaborate decorative handrails and stairs but not for weed eradication.
Phase 2, which is now on public exhibition for a second time, appears to be about joining up the concrete infrastructure built in 2017 with Captain Cook Lookout. This duplicates the existing track that was built in 2015. The work was supposed to proceed in 2018 with funding of $4.6 million provided, in the form of a big cheque at Avoca Beach during the 5 Lands Walk that year, by the NSW Government.
Significant community opposition resulted in Central Coast Council deferring the commencement of works to make way for a rethink and greater community consultation.
This is a regular occurrence in the funding of local projects by state governments but, in this instance, the NSW Government ripped up its big cheque and reallocated the funds to drought affected areas. The Central Coast’s lightly-progressive council had said no to concrete so it had to be punished.
The consultation for phase 2, which closes on December 15, presents the community with three options: doing a trail and lookout to the crevasse; doing a bridge over the crevasse and a lookout; or formalising the existing bush track. The Winney Bay Warriors say they like Plan D, leave it as it is, but their order of preference is CAB – formalise the existing track, path to and lookout at the Crevasse or bridge over crevasse as the least favourable option.
Beliefs v business
The debate about Winney Bay is about two different belief systems. One appears to be about commercialising the region to boost the number of paying tourists but doesn’t pay much attention to the natural or cultural significance of the place. The other is about protecting and preserving the bush and the Aboriginal heritage of the area.
“Why do we need another walk that is an alternative to the 2015 walk?” Cooper asks.
Cooper said she was horrified when she saw how many trees were cut down in 2017 to make way for the isolated infrastructure halfway along the clifftop.
The Winney Bay Warriors used Government Information Public Access (GIPA) to access information about the funding of and proposed Phase 2 works for Winney Bay. “Other community people contributed financially to the GIPAs because, once we realised what we were being told wasn’t necessarily the facts, we needed to verify the information,” she says.
For example, council staff have said the 2017 stairs comply to the relevant Australian Standard but “the tread on the steps varies up to approximately four inches. I asked the consultant why they were expanding the car park as part of the current proposal when the carpark had only recently been built and he said the upgrade was necessary so it complied to the Australian Standard but why didn’t it comply when it is only a recent completion?
“No one has been able to explain to me who in 2015 or 2016 removed the vegetation on the clifftop and why so much of it was cleared. A local Copa resident saw the machinery there and asked them what they were doing and they said putting in a walkway.
“One has to ask why the current consultation is being pushed through when we have got a council with financial issues and we also have a state government in deficit. What studies have been done to look at the benefits for tourism? The grant application for the previous funding clearly showed the employment generated would have been for only four full-time equivalent positions.
“Tourists love this area for its natural beauty; they are not asking for concrete roads and concrete pathways.
“Environmental land should have bush care done on it but there is no mention of bush care being done to remove the boneseed and bitou bush, and when you concrete and clear, you attract more weeds.
“Lots of people in the community would not realise what is involved and what is really being pushed through here. This is a catalyst for concreting lots of bush areas right along the coast so the question needs to asked, who benefits? Why isn’t there a footpath being built next to the road between Copa and Avoca. Why does the bushland need to be concreted?
“[Member for Terrigal] Adam Crouch claimed on radio that they must go ahead with the original masterplan and the original masterplan specifically says bush trail.”
Cooper says she is concerned council staff will push ahead with their plans even if the community says no.
“Recently council staff have tried to say that a few trees have been strategically pruned for views due to community demand but, looking at the space, trees have been slashed or cut off at the base and piled up which appears to be preparation for a walkway.
“The proposed walkway would not only destroy where the walkway would be but along each side of it as well – for machinery access. They will bring machinery in to build a walkway for people to enjoy the bushland when all you will see because of the clearing is weed infestation and a concrete walkway.
“Why are council pushing through something that doesn’t even comply with a COSS plan of management?
“COSS is actually being slowly taken away, not mentioned in any media, nor mentioned as a tourist attraction, nor maintained, and COSS is something of value that all rate payers have contributed to with a levy on their rates.
“COSS is unique to the Central Coast and, in the state’s regional plan for the Central Coast it was supposed to be expanded but that hasn’t happened. So, yet again, we have another proposal with plans but only selected items are progressed. Why?”
Eco destination
The Central Coast is on its way to becoming a certified ECO Destination through an Ecotourism Australia and WWF-Australia funded partnership.
Achieving ECO Destination certification will recognise the Central Coast as a world-class destination for sustainable, nature-based tourism.
Central Coast Council Director Connected Communities, Julie Vaughan said the Ecotourism Australia and WWF-Australia partnership will support the region with a two-year $30,000 package that covers all costs to progress through Ecotourism Australia’s ECO Destination program.
“This partnership is a significant boost for our growing nature-based tourism sector here on the Coast,” Ms Vaughan said.
“The Central Coast has been selected along with five other bush fire affected destinations, including the Blue Mountains in NSW and Kangaroo Island in SA, to move toward formal recognition of our world-class eco-tourism offerings.
“We have so much to offer – stunning beaches, incredible bushwalks, picturesque hinterland, adventure activities, boutique shopping, great locally produced food, a vibrant dining scene – and ECO Destination certification will help deliver this message to a broader audience.”
Ecotourism Australia’s Chief Executive Rod Hillman said: “As the Central Coast offers a high number of existing ecotourism operators alongside a high proportion of national parks and protected natural spaces – the goal is to bring this all together with ECO Destination certification.”
Truth?
It appears there is reticence to mention the Central Coast’s wealth of Aboriginal heritage, particularly at spots like Winney Bay.
As Australia crawls towards Truth, Voice and Treaty and as more people cry out for preservation of the bush in the face of the global climate emergency, surely common sense will prevail and Winney Bay will remain in its natural state.
In the words of Phil Pulbrook: “Some places on the Coast, like Winney Bay, Kincumba Mountain, Kariong, are as important as the pyramids but in other countries the destruction we are considering wouldn’t happen.”
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