‘People have been in tears’: How the Central Coast seawall fight turned ugly

The long-running battle over a proposed 1.4-kilometre seawall at Wamberal Beach on the Central Coast has brought accusations of scare campaigns, bullying and misinformation as the plan remains under assessment.

After violent storms in 2016 and 2020 that tore one home’s swimming pool from its foundations, threatened numerous shoreline properties and uncovered buried asbestos, three development applications for the seawall were lodged with Central Coast Council midway through last year.

Members of the Save our Sands community group at Wamberal Beach. Credit: Edwina Pickles

The applications, which are before a regional planning panel, have received hundreds of community objections. Critics say the seawall’s construction will exacerbate coastal erosion, threaten the public’s use of the beach and increase flooding in nearby lagoons that would not be protected by the seawall.

Corinne Lamont, a first-term Central Coast councillor who campaigned against the proposal at the last election, said “people on the coast don’t want to see their beach sacrificed to protect a small number of houses” that she claims are “empty most of the year”.

Lamont said the cost of seawall construction, which is expected to fall on beachfront residents, was “beyond what most people can afford. There’s been a lot of people down there that have been in tears because of this issue.”

Lamont and members of the Wamberal Protection Association – a group supporting the seawall’s construction and assisting in the development application process – have each accused their opponents of running scare campaigns and using misinformation to bolster public support.

In a statement, the association said some opponents of the seawall were “misinformed activists” who “have been relentless in bullying WPA members and harassing beachfront owners”, and they “do not care if houses fall onto the beach”.

The WPA also alleges that “children have been bullied at school” for their parents’ support of the seawall.

Lamont categorically denied that the opponents of the seawall were misinformed or had harassed owners and said claims of bullying were an “absolute fabrication”.

Proponents of the seawall argue that it would be “landscape designed” to blend in with the foredune and that it is necessary to protect not only beachfront homes but also infrastructure, including arterial roads, utilities and sewer lines.

Three development applications have been lodged for the construction of a seawall at Wamberal Beach.Credit: Edwina Pickles

The alternative plan suggested by opponents of the seawall is a program of sand nourishment, in which offshore sand is dredged onto the beach. Dredging would require involvement from higher levels of government and would be needed to maintain the beach as a public amenity, as the process cannot be employed for the protection of private property.

The NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure objected to the development application adjacent to Wamberal Lagoon on environmental impact grounds. Federal MP for Robertson Gordon Reid opposes the seawall construction.

The debate has heightened as ex-tropical cyclone Alfred led to coastal erosion on NSW and Queensland beaches this month. The storm came weeks after experts called for a managed retreat from the Australian coastline as $25 billion worth of property faces the threat of being taken by the sea.

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