Tuggerah Lakes flooding: There’s a simple fix if politicians had the breakwalls to do it

Opinion: The only thing more stagnant about plans to fix flooding in Tuggerah Lakes is the politics around it. But there could be a very simple, inexpensive fix, for now.

The entrance to Lake Illawarra which has two breakwalls, which a lot of people are calling for at The Entrance. Picture: supplied

In 2013 the State Government commissioned a report into The Entrance Channel which presented five options.

The fifth and most expensive option at $46.9 million was twin breakwalls, with an estimated lifespan of about 50 years.

The entrance to Lake Illawarra which has two breakwalls, which a lot of people are calling for at The Entrance. Picture: supplied

It was similar finding to a previous report and no doubt, will be the finding of future studies.

Similar calls for a permanent fix arose out of the 2007 “Pasha Bulker” storm, which again left thousands of homes in lakeside suburbs inundated for days.

Aerial drone shots of Tuggerah Lakes/The Entrance Channel and the flooding in the region. Picture: @photoslog

But other than commission yet another study into Tuggerah Lakes no government, at any level, has had the political fortitude to draw a line in the sand, as it were, and make twin breakwalls a reality.

TUGGERAH LAKES FLOODING: GOVERNMENT, COUNCIL AT WAR OVER PLANS

The biggest fear is the unknown.

What if there’s a major rainfall event, coupled with king tides and the water can’t get out?

Or what if breakwalls fundamentally change the ecology of the entire lakes system?

Then there’s the age-old arguments against breakwalls, such as Tuggerah Lakes is above sea level (it isn’t) so there will be minimal tidal movement and be of little benefit.

Or worse, a permanent opening would expose mudflats at low tide.

Wyong Council is pumping sand from The Entrance Channel into the surf zone, on The Entrance Beach, to address erosion. Picture: Peter Clark

The reality is Tuggerah Lakes is not the same as it was a century ago when ferries used to ply their trade between Wyong and The Entrance, the lake was by some reports up to 34m deep and people used to swim on its sandy shores around the original long jetty — correct, the lake used to have a beautiful sandy bottom.

Surrounding development changed wetland watercourses, which acted like sponges, and years of stormwater run off has left thick layers of sediment, rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, which has turbocharged the growth of ugly wrack.

Meanwhile political pointscoring from all sides, and at all levels, of government stagnate any possible long-term solution.

Dawesville Channel in 2002.

Proponents of twin breakwalls point out their success at Lake Illawarra, south of Sydney, or the Dawesville Channel, 80km south of Perth, which was credited for saving the Peel-Harvey Estuarine System in 1994 at a cost of $37 million.

But both of these have their own inherent, ongoing issues.

The reality, however, is when an East Coast low pressure system and king tides in 2016 carved a “second” opening, north of the usual channel at The Entrance — near where local hero Ben Weber would take his excavator to open a second channel four years later — three things happened.

The Entrance Channel after the 2007 “Pasha Bulker” storms opened a `northern’ channel past the rocks on the southern side. Picture: SES.

Stormwater run off was able to dissipate, mudflats were not left exposed at low tide and no properties flooded at high tide.

Coastal engineer Angus Jackson is a member of the community advocacy group Tuggerah Lakes Breakthrough Association.

He says a simple, effective solution would be to use geotech sand bags to create a breakwall along the northern side of the channel.

At an estimated cost of $300,000 it is a suck-it-and-see approach.

A geotech sandbag wall would be cheaper than the rock groyne built on The Entrance Beach in 2017. (AAP Image/Sue Graham)

In 2014 the then Wyong Shire Council commissioned a report into shaving a metre or two of rock from the southern side of the channel to keep it open for longer.

But Mr Jackson’s idea would be to use geotech bags to keep a northern channel open where the out running tide could scour the sand away and leave a permanent channel.

The beauty of his idea is that if fish stop biting, prawns die, Berkeley Vale disappears under water and the sky falls in, the bags can be easily removed.

But if the sandbags do work and properties are not flooded every time it rains and untold environmental damage is avoided then perhaps the council, or the state government, might have the fortitude to stump up the $50 million or so needed to construct twin breakwalls.

But it didn’t take a coastal engineer to come up with that.

Dunlieth Toursit Park owner of 40 years Laurie Littlefield had the same idea in 2008.

And you guessed it, political infighting saw council vote against trialling it then.

Dunlieth Tourist Park owner Laurie Littlefield (right) had the same idea in 2008 but council voted against trialling it.