Engineer says 50 years of erosion research being ignored

Civil engineer Angus Gordon, a key figure in developing NSW's coastal erosion management standards, is speaking out against recent decisions that he believes undermine decades of research. Gordon, who co-authored the state's first Coastal Protection Act in 1978 and its 2016 revision, expressed dismay after the Land and Environment Court allowed beachfront homeowners on the Central Coast to construct a seawall.

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It seems like nobody took any notice of [the act] and what's happening now is just exactly what I and my colleagues said would happen back in the late 70s.

"It seems like nobody took any notice of [the act] and what's happening now is just exactly what I and my colleagues said would happen back in the late 70s," Gordon stated. He described the court's decision to permit a 90-meter seawall at The Entrance North as a "most unfortunate precedent that should never have occurred."

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It seems like nobody took any notice of [the act] and what's happening now is just exactly what I and my colleagues said would happen back in the late 70s.

Gordon also voiced disappointment with Crown Lands' use of sandbags to protect dunes at Byron Bay's Clarkes Beach. This measure, intended to support the shoreline in front of a state-owned holiday park and cafe, directly opposes his recommended approach of relocating structures away from the coast and allowing natural processes to manage erosion. He criticized the state authority for "undermining the potential for getting a solution to all this" and investing public money in what he deems "really silly things."

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Crown Lands should be leading the way as a state government authority. But they're not leading the way, they're actually undermining the potential for getting a solution to all this.

A Crown Lands spokesperson defended the sandbagging, noting that public authorities are legally permitted to install such measures for up to 90 days. The current sandbags at Clarkes Beach have consent until 2037, and the authority plans to seek an extension. However, historical context from a 1978 study commissioned by the NSW Department of Public Works, which Gordon was involved in, warned that "individual action to solve site specific problems will not only be ineffective, but it will almost certainly also lead to increasing problems elsewhere."

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Money is being invested in really silly things, and that's state government money.