Lake Illawarra Report, 1974

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LAKE ILLAWARRA
A REPORT ON LAND USE IN THE CATCHMENT AREA OF LAKE ILLAWARRA
This submission is especially directed to: South Coast Conservation Society (S.C.C.S) Illawarra District Advisory Council Lake Illawarra Subcommittee

Prepared by: Dianne Allen, March, 1974 CONTENTS:

1. DEFINED LIMITS OF SUBMISSION ................................................................................................................. 2 2. RESUME OF PREVIOUSLY COLLATED MATERIAL ON LAKE ILLAWARRA ........................................... 3 3. RESOURCE ANALYSIS FOR LAKE ILLAWARRA AND ITS CATCHMENT AREA ...................................... 5 Figure 3.1 Water Resources ............................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 3.2 Steep Land Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 3.3 Major Contour Features .................................................................................................................... 8 Figure 3.4 Geological Resources ....................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 3.5 Land Use Pattern .............................................................................................................................10 Figure 3.6 Major Transport Features .................................................................................................................11 4. SUBMISSIONS ...................................................................................................................................................12 4.1 General Submissions ......................................................................................................................................12 4.2 Protective Legislation .....................................................................................................................................12 4.3 Land Use Control ...........................................................................................................................................13 1. Steep Land Protection to reduce erosion and visual pollution of the Escarpment Face ...................................14 2. Primary Industries ........................................................................................................................................14 3. Urban Activities ...........................................................................................................................................15 Table 4.1 Land Use Standards (NCDC source) .................................................................................................16 4. Lake Foreshores and Other Special Considerations .......................................................................................17 Figure 4.1 Submissions Land Use Control ........................................................................................................18 4.4. Development Pre-requisites ...........................................................................................................................19 4.5 Management of the Waters of the Lake and Foreshores in Public Ownership ..................................................19

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1. DEFINED LIMITS OF SUBMISSION

This submission is made, not as a criticism of past or present investigations being carried out into the Lake Illawarra and its region, but as another point of view which may serve to freshen debate on the control and management of the factors that will affect the lake area. The submission is limited by the extent of my personal resources that have been able to be used up to the present time in preparing this report, and by the fact that this report is a voluntary effort, and by the fact that this report may be of value now, but at some later date could and indeed should be superseded by a substantially expanded and comprehensive report. The submission, while it looks at some aspects of the physical constraints that have played and will continue to play a substantial role in the development of the ecology of the lake and its catchment area, is more geared to the kind of legislation and management techniques that can be exploited at the present to protect the lake, and raises some further suggestions for the kind of legislation that should be developed in order to expedite the effective management of the area. This submission has extended previous limits used when investigating Lake Illawarra. It does this by looking at the catchment area in detail. The lake waters, bed and foreshores have been looked at in detail elsewhere. Control of the foreshores, control of activities on the lake surface, can be carried out reasonably effectively by present governmental agencies because they have statutory responsibilities in these areas. But I submit that this control will be meaningless if the quality of water, its volume, its frequency peak and trough rates of entry, as it enters the lake from the total of the lake's catchment is not also controlled to the same degree.

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2. RESUME OF PREVIOUSLY COLLATED MATERIAL ON LAKE ILLAWARRA

The following material on Lake Illawarra has been brought to and has come to my notice : 1. Past files of correspondence on the South Coast Conservation Society 2. Files of individuals interested in the Lake 3. Past publications of the Illawarra Regional Development Committee that have developed out of their researches on this area. The following generalisations can be made from this material: 1. The concern and activities of the South Coast Conservation Society, in their attempt to protect the environment of the lake for future use and to provide guidelines for present development and usage which are consistent with conservation for future use, have been restricted in the main, to activities which affect the foreshores of the lake or cross the waters of the lake. In particular, the Department of Main Roads with its highway across Windang, and the proposed expressway across Koona Bay comes under scrutiny; Wollongong Council and its attitude to Northcliffe Drive and application by the Illawarra Yacht Club for permission to reclaim part of the lake bed for club facilities comes under scrutiny; Shellharbour Council and its attitude to works at Lakes Entrance, reclamation of lake bed for premises for the Police Boys club, also comes under scrutiny. 2. The research of the Illawarra Regional Development Committee, as reported in its findings "The Future of Lake Illawarra" by the Wollongong University College Working Party, and "Foreshore Land Use: Reclamation and Recreation" by R. Robinson has also been directed mainly at the waters of the lake, their state, ecology and geomorphology of the lake structure, and at the problems of management of foreshores. 3. There has been some recognition of the effects of land use in the catchment area and mandirected development of land in the catchment area. The two noted developments here relate to zoning and rezoning: presently zoned rural land likely to be rezoned for industrial use near Kembla Grange, and a package sewerage treatment works associated with residential development at Albion Park which would generate large volumes of effluent discharging into Lake Illawarra via Macquarie Rivulet. 4. Further, from the files of the South Coast Conservation Society, there would appear to be an attitude of Sydney based governmental bodies, to pass the buck to the locally constituted Illawarra Regional Development Committee. I understand from the report of that body, that, while one buck of responsibility is readily passed, the same cannot be said of the buck of funds for research or powers and funds to implement findings and recommendations. It would seem that the interests of all could be substantially strengthened by considerable liaison between these two bodies, where the status, role and processes of action which are different for both groups can be used to complement one anothers effectiveness.

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It should be noted that the Illawarra Regional Development Committee has been superseded by the Illawarra District Advisory Council, but this change is effectively only one of name, and not one of intent or power, so what has been said can be taken to still apply.

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3. RESOURCE ANALYSIS FOR LAKE ILLAWARRA AND ITS CATCHMENT AREA

The resources analysed are as follows 1. Water resources - waterways carrying water to the lake, swampy ground within the catchment area, ridges determining the boundary of the catchment area of waters entering the lake 2. Steep Land Analysis - land with a slope in excess of 25%, considered unsuitable for urban development, and unsuitable for agricultural or primary industries which include a large degree of clearing, owing to its susceptibility to severe erosion over a short period of time 3. Major Contour Features 100ft, 500ft and 1000ft contour lines 4. Geological formations - noting particularly those of economic importance or posing significant constraints on development 5. Present Land Use - land use permitted under Illawarra Planning Scheme, 1968 6. Transport Networks - present main arterial routes connecting the region with other areas of the Illawarra region, and interconnecting major developments within the catchment area References for these Resource Analyses The base map, water resources and steep land analysis have been prepared from: o Wollongong Topographical Map Series R 751, 1921 roads revised l942 o Kiama Topographical Map Series R 751, 1932 Geological formations have been interpolated from: o Wollongong Geological Map Sheet S1-56-9 2nd Ed, 1966; o Records of Geological Survey of N.S.W. Volume 12, part 2, pub. 1970; o Geological Survey Report No GS 1971/464 "Aggregate Resources of the Illawarra Region" Present land use has been interpolated from the maps attendant to the Illawarra Planning Scheme, 1968, transport networks also being interpolated from this source as well as the old routes indicated on the topographical maps. The accuracy, in detail of these resource analyses is limited by the problem of interpolating material from differently scaled maps, to place the accumulated information on the one scale map bases. The convenience of having the same scale when determining broad policy outweighs errors in detail. But errors are there.

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Figure 3.1 Water Resources

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Figure 3.2 Steep Land Analysis

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Figure 3.3 Major Contour Features

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Figure 3.4 Geological Resources

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Figure 3.5 Land Use Pattern

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Figure 3.6 Major Transport Features

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4. SUBMISSIONS
4.1 General Submissions
In company with a host of other bodies who have endeavoured to understand Lake Illawarra, and take appropriate action to preserve and enhance this significant asset of the Illawarra region, I submit that all activities on and in the lake, at its entrance, around its foreshores and throughout its catchment area, must be controlled. This control is most likely to be able to be effectively established if one authority has full responsibility for decisions affecting the continuation of present activities and change in future activities in the area. This control, far from being inflexible, can, if based on sufficient and continuing research into actions and their effects on the lake environment, be sufficiently flexible to encourage private and public development of the area into a viable unit in terms of 1. Continuing natural life systems 2. Establishing social human systems or communities living in the environs of the lake 3. Establishing a sufficiently strong internal economics, so that exports from the area, e.g tourism, primary produce and recreational services to other communities not in the area, determine a strong economy functioning onsurplus not deficit.

4.2 Protective Legislation

Consultation of "Guidelines for Application of Environmental Impact Policy" indicates, in full, the areas where present legislation protects the environment of the lake, and which are the governmental bodies and departments that have jurisdiction, and the acts under which they have such statutory powers of control. At present, responsibility is divided between Local Government bodies and government departments. The Local Government bodies involved are Wollongong City Council and Shellharbour Municipal Council playing the major role, with Kiama Municipal Council, Mittagong Shire Council and Wingecarribee Council having jurisdiction of lands which constitute the headwaters of the creeks feeding Lake Illawarra. The Government Departments and bodies having responsibility are the Maritime Services Board, the Chief Secretary's Department (Fisheries), the Department of Lands, the National Park and Wildlife Service, the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission, the Public Works Department, the Health Commission, the Forestry Commission the M.W.S.&,D.B., the Department of Mines and the State Planning Authority. The Local Government Boundaries Commission could correct the first anomaly with respect to divided Local Government authority. Amendments to a wide range of Acts would be required before all the other responsibilities could be consolidated and handled by the one organisation.

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However, it should be noted that each of the other bodies mentioned are also repositories of expertise in studying individual aspects of the environment that experience has shown must be controlled. Therefore, the establishment of a research unit, with an officer from each one of these departments could provide an alternative to changing the Acts. Under the regulations of the Acts, it would be a small thing to delegate the responsibility of implementing the relevant Acts within the bounds of the Lake Illawarra and catchment area, to these officers. The research unit then set up with representatives from each of these government departments would then be a flexible unit which could not only investigate aspects of Lake Illawarra Environment, but could also control activities which are detrimental to the lake environment. Such a group could also provide a unit of personnel able to advise in areas of new legislation, particularly, for example, in the areas of drawing up local, Local Government Ordinances which could effectively hand power of control over to one regulating body.

4.3 Land Use Control

The present state of Lake Illawarra, and the public concern expressed about its future, lead one to the following conclusion: Land use should not be upgraded from present zonings and present actual use until sufficient consideration has been given to the accumulated consequences of any further development. This would be the safest step that could be taken. It is recognised, however, that there are severe pressures that will precipitate development in the area and that development will come, no doubt before the research indicated above could be brought to fruition. In fact cynical realism leads me to believe that development will occur before such a research body could even be established. On the basis of the resource analyses, general and incomplete though they be, it would seem necessary at present to provide guidelines for such development that would result in minimal damage being done to the environment. It is on this basis that I am prepared to present the following suggestions, in an attempt to guide development within obvious constraints so that no further obvious mistakes are made in the Lake Illawarra area.

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1. Steep Land Protection to reduce erosion and visual pollution of the Escarpment Face
The steep land, analysed previously, is land involved in the previous submission of the S.C.C.S. for an Illawarra Regional Park. Land use of the area at present will be allowed to continue. Any further works of clearing for grazing should be prohibited. Any further works for access to the Illawarra Coal Measures face should be prohibited or severely restricted. The Mount Johnson spur road, being considered as a link for the Illawarra coast and the Berrima District and the Tablelands ought to be reconsidered. Its reconsideration ought to be in the light of the possibility of upgrading the present Moss Vale - Unanderra rail link, and the desirability of rail for freight haulage. Also, reconsideration should have in mind the needs of private transport and the feasibility of private transport by the end of the century. The Mount Johnson spur road would undoubtedly be a better road link than the Macquarie Pass or Jamberoo Mountain Pass could ever be, if its actual alignments and construction are as is indicated by the resource analyses. But it would also have a considerable visual impact on this impressive ridge of the area. Active reafforestation should be encouraged as a primary industry in lands previously cleared for grazing, but which are no longer grazed, and on lands previously cleared for mining activities and no longer in use.

2. Primary Industries
Grazing for dairy and beef cattle, agistment for bad seasons west of the range, and the extractive industries of coalmining and basalt quarrying are carried out at present in the area. The extractive industries are quite profitable on present market demands. Grazing is not anywhere near as profitable. Land for expansion of grazing is not available, so consolidation of presently farmed areas is the only avenue for increasing productivity. However, competition for land for speculative urban expansion makes such consolidation, at present, impossible. As the extractive industries are active around the periphery of the area, in order to lessen the impact of the extractive industries it is proposed that a substantial area be retained in primary industry use, for grazing and development of ancillary services for the coal and blue metal industry. Those areas where associated activities of the coal mining and blue metal quarrying are being carried out should also be actively screened by major reafforestation projects.

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Where the location of these activities is negotiable, then local geography should be used as a facet that determines the location, so that it will have least visual impact, and so that pollution from air borne solids is minimised. Land zoned for primary industry and used for grazing should also be protected from being valued on any basis other than its production.

3. Urban Activities
One of the criteria restricting the present functioning of the Illawarra area lies in the adequate development of the transport system. Any further development of the urban area in the Lake Illawarra catchment area should be directed so that this problem, if possible, is alleviated and certainly so that it is not aggravated. The present Princes Highway and South Coast railway provides a convenient as well as wellestablished transport corridor on the western side of the lake. Further development should be based around these facilities. Both the railway system and the road system could be improved along this corridor, without extravagant investment of capital, and urban development geared to make the most of such a system would be a marked improvement of most of the present urban facilities anywhere in the whole coastal Illawarra area. It is proposed then, that (i) a second line between Shellharbour and Wollongong be added to the present railway system (ii) a line from Avondale colliery to Dapto be established to take the coal traffic (iii) the Princes Highway be taken west of the railway line at Dapto and remain west of the line right through the area (iv) the railway-highway transport corridor be used as a physical boundary of residential and industrial estates by restricting access to the highway (v) the limit of urban land use then be one mile east and one mile west of this corridor, there will be some exceptions to this rule, dependent on physical features and/or present development, but as a rule this limit should not be exceeded. This would give a total of 21 square miles for urban development. From the standards presented by the N.C.D.C. for Belconnen, A.C.T., this would allow for a population of 120,000; and land use breakdown, as applied to Belconnen, is given in the following table :

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Table 4.1 Land Use Standards (NCDC source)

Land Use Low density housing areas Group housing areas Town centre (incl.parking) Other centre Industrial and service trade sites Parks and sports grounds Major and local roads Institutional and broad acre uses Primary and high schools (pub. & priv.) Other and future use areas Total developal4e area Town density (P.P.A) Housing density (P.P.A.) Reference: Tomorrow's Canberra, page 96 Twenty one square miles would give a total acreage of 13,440 acres, so from these figures there would be another 380 acres, of which allowing for some physical feature disabilities could give at least another 300 acres for urban use. In the Lake Illawarra area, these 300 acres would be used for extra industrial sites, because Lake Illawarra is not a services industry based economy or area relying on the excesses of income tax and the provision of national government for its economic justification. (vi) use could be made of geographical features and planting programs to identify communities. The major ridge south of Dapto will make an outstanding contribution to this kind of definition. For a start, it will determine the boundary of the sewerage catchment area for the mains taking waste water to the Port Kembla treatment works, while the area south of that ridge will have its sewerage taken to the Barrack Point treatment works. Geographic features and planting programs can also be used to define the outer boundaries of the catchment area, where other urban areas are likely to encroach on the present landscape features. This encroachment has already occurred at Lake Heights, Warrawong, Kemblawarra and, south of the lake at Mt Warrigal-Warilla. Future development should avoid repeating this kind of development, and when redevelopment in these areas occurs, guidelines, endeavouring to recapture the geographic definition of the area should be set as a requirement during such redevelopment. Acreage(net) 4,990 880 190 240 80 1,640 2,870 1,480 590 100 13,060 9.19 20.44 Acres/1,000 pop.n 41.58 7.33 1.59 2.00 6.67 13.67 23.92 12.33 4.92 0.83 108.83

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4. Lake Foreshores and Other Special Considerations

Land use around the lake foreshore, should be for public recreation use. Some areas, because of their ecology, will need to be specially protected with respect to development and access. The openness of the lake foreshores is to be retained, and a development plan for regaining the openness in areas where it has been lost as a result of previous developments, should be established as soon as possible, so that acquisition of the alienated land can be negotiated as soon as possible. Other areas where special consideration of land use is required, is again associated with water resources. The major creeks feeding into the lake near the entrance to the lake, because of the changing nature of deposition and navigability of channels through the natural deposits, need to be specially protected from unnecessarily interfering development, no matter whether public or private use is interested in such development.

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Figure 4.1 Submissions Land Use Control

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4.4. Development Pre-requisites

The projected expansion of urban-industrial activities must be preceded by the establishment of a sewerage system which carries all excess waste water away from the lake, to a treatment works which prepares the wastes prior to discharging them into the sea. It must be remembered that water, used in households and in the processes of businesses and industry in the Lake Illawarra area, does not come from the Lake Illawarra Catchment, so it is an unnatural addition to the normal water flow in the Lake Illawarra catchment area. So this water, which initially comes from the catchments of the metropolitan water supply and is brought into the area by the M.W.S.&.D.B. ought also to be taken out of the area and not added to the waters normally feeding into Lake Illawarra. (There is one exception that has to be made in this case, and that is of the Tallawarra Power Station - alternative concessions could then be obtained from this enterprise, at this stage it would seem that the lake and lake ecology can cope with this infusion of warm water, and it would appear that the distribution and population of prawns has possibly been enhanced by this development. Further and continuing research could confirm that the discharge, of the present quantities and present temperature of this water is to the advantage of the lake.) Secondly, the development of the urban and industrial area should also proceed concurrently with a program of (i) natural ground cover planting (ii) tree planting (iii) contour soil conservation project works and (iv) drainage system so that the flow of water into Lake Illawarra is kept, as far as possible, as a natural flow. At present, clearing for grazing and development of residential and industrial areas, means that the flow in the tributaries and drainage system, draining into Lake Illawarra, is becoming more intermittent, carries more silt, and has much more force at peaks, than would have been the case previously. I would say that these factors are among the reasons why (i) the lake is silting up so rapidly (ii) the lake is not clearing as well as it should between heavy rains, and consequently, there will be times when the putrefaction of the lake reaches undesirable levels, both in terms of amenity, and in terms of sustaining a balanced natural ecosystem. Thirdly, economic increments, resulting from the development of land in the catchment area, but significantly removed from the immediate foreshores should be channelled into the purchase of foreshores from private ownership into public ownership, and the development of these foreshores in a way that increases public use of the recreation assets of the body of water of the lake, and which also in some measure re-establishes the natural surrounds of the lake foreshore, thus enhancing the scenic value of the lake.

4.5 Management of the Waters of the Lake and Foreshores in Public Ownership

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The preceding discussion indicates that it is my submission that management of the waters of the lake and foreshores in public ownership should be the role of the authority which also has control of the activities in the rest of the catchment area of the lake. The ideas placed in this section are a study of the present establishment etc., of a trust, as this is to be considered to be one way in which, in this non-ideal .world, the question of control and management can be implemented if only for the restricted areas of the foreshores and the waters. The Crown Lands Consolidation Act, No 7, section 24 9 indicates that the waters of the lake, and the lake bed, both at present crown land, and the foreshores of the lake already dedicated by the Illawarra Planning Scheme as public recreation space could be readily consolidated as crown land dedicated for public purposes. Section 26 of the same act, indicates (i) the way of establishing (ii) the composition and (iii) the powers of a trust .which could be established for the purpose of managing the abovesaid dedicated crown land. Dedication of the areas mentioned would effectively control reclamation or encroachment of the lake and its foreshore reserves, but clearly at this stage some Ministers in Cabinet may find that it is to their department's advantage to oppose such dedication. One area which comes immediately to mind, is the Lake's entrance where, because of the development of a substantial residential community around Warilla and the south east edge of the lake, and because of the lack of employment opportunities south of Lake Illawarra, there is a considerable demand for transport routes across the lake entrance in order to take people to the industrial complex of Part Kembla on the northern side of the lake. The response to the step of dedication and control by a trust is yet to be determined, as up till now no definite moves have been made in this direction. A trial of the response by submitting such a demand, would at the very least establish the nature of any reaction and could provide guidelines for future developments in control and management.