LAPEROUSE

The Department of Environment and Climate Change tests the water quality at 131 sites in Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra and then ranks the beaches 1 to 41 with 1 being the cleanest.  Full Report for Botany Bay.  Overall Summary.

 The rankings show that water quality for Yarra Bay and particularly Frenchman’s is very poor at 22 and 37 respectively.

  Congwong Bay 1/1/09

The rankings for swimming sites for Summer 2007-8 in Botany Bay and the Lower Georges.

Join with the La Perouse Coastcare Alliance on March 1, 2009 in cleaning up Congwong Bay.  Come between 0800 and 1200 to the Snake Pit, Cann Park, La Perouse (opposite the bus terminus on Anzac Parade). 

Register at http://events.cleanup.org.au/?Congwong+Bay  

On the day please wear a hat, sunscreen and protective clothing - long sleeve shirts, long pants, gardening gloves, sturdy shoes - and bring water.  All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Little Bay Cubs took out a Highly Commended Award in the Youth Legends category for their entry on Little Congwong Beach at the recent Keep Australia Beautiful Clean Beaches Challenge Awards. Randwick Council also collected two Highly Commended Awards for Yarra Bay in the categories of Resource Management and Friendliness.

The Little Bay Cubs entry showed the children at work and play. For the time being these activities have been restricted to early morning or winter.
One cub suggested that the beach was just like the one in Alison Lester’s book “Magic Beach”. The following are some excerpts:

“At our beach,

at our magic beach,

we swim in the sparkling sea,

surfing and splashing

and jumping the waves,

shrieking and laughing with glee.

Wild white horses are thundering past,

racing to get to the land,

plunging and prancing and tossing their heads,

then fading away on the sand.

At our beach,

at our magic beach,

we play in the sand for hours,

digging and building,

with buckets and spades,

invincible castles and towers….

At our beach,

at our magic beach,

we walk when it’s cloudy and grey,

looking for driftwood,

feathers and shells

washed up on the edge of the bay……” (by Alison Lester, ISBN 0044422989

The following has been extracted from the Little Bay Cubs entry:

Firstly, the beach encourages youth activity: It draws the children into play as well as to observe the natural beauty of the rockpools, sandstone caves and diverse vegetation. It provides the perfect setting for a history lesson on the settlement of Australia, cultural lessons on how the original Aboriginal people lived in this area, and many lessons on natural history. For example, Little Penguins used to use the beach for burrow and occasionally a Little Penguin can still be observed during moulting season. Secondly, the group can play in safety and be easily supervised by adults: There are areas of natural shade and protection from the wind. Over the years the group has engaged in a range of activities. Some have taken down a rubber boats to paddle around in the safe waters. Others have participated in science tests on the quality of the water that streams onto the beach. Thirdly, because it so special the group is happy to participate in cleanups. For instance, on Cleanup Australia Day this year they brought out hundreds of old bottles, cigarette butts and polystyrene. On another occasion they participated in a National Tree Planting day and planted natives along the walking track to the beach. Fourthly, the group are so enthusiastic about promoting the beach so others can enjoy it and this year the special event was conducting a tour on the anniversary of the day that Joseph Banks collected shells in the area.

Environmentally Speaking 18   Issue 18 contains a lead story on the bid for an Environmental Offset from Orica; Land & Environment Court at Prince Henry as well as Heritage and Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub; Trucks in Matraville; Little Congwong Award for Little Bay Cubs.

           The Land and Environment Court met at Prince Henry this morning with community members turning up to support Randwick Council’s fight to make Stockland stick to the agreed Masterplan.  Charles, Janice and Diane from the La Perouse Precinct Committee outlined the major concerns.  It had taken extensive consultation with the community to arrive at the Masterplan.  It is inappropriate to increase the height levels at the entry to the development and our need for retailing, services and healthcare was non-negotiable.    A resident from  Prince Henry supported these concerns and added that he had made his decision to buy into the development based on the Masterplan.  After taking evidence the Commissioner was taken on a tour of the site.

Photos L-R: the community gathering for the hearing;  in the ‘courtroom’; on tour;  looking at the entry; Sewing Room scultpture - situated on the site of the former Heritage listed Sewing Cottage which burnt down under the care of Landcom.  This is what is said about the Sewing Room in the Heritage Listing: “Sewing room, formerly Superintendent’s Cottage. A rusticated weatherboard former residence, built c 1915, with shingled sunhoods and fascia, timber verandah and balustrade and a later Marseilles tiled roof. There is a garage of similar date adjacent and a trellis survives, sheltering the rear entrance. “  Link - Prince Henry Hospital    This is what is said on the sculpture - ”

This was the site of the sewing machine cottage, a non-discript(sic) little building where sewing of nurses uniforms and general mending of clothing took place in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
 

  Anemones (Order Actiniaria) are in the class Anthozoa which includes corals and sea pens and there are about 6500 species world wide and about 200 species in southern Australia.  They have a central body cavity and a central mouth, and hollow tentacles radiating in one or more rows around the mouth.  The body is supported by water pressure.  They occur as individuals. Phlyctenanthus australis has a diameter to 100mm and can be seen at depths between 1-35m.  They range from Ceduna in SA to Sydney and around Tasmania.

(photograph by William Peters 11/2008)

Aplysiids are commonly called Sea Hares because of their side-on appearance.  The oral tentacles extending in front of the head resemble the nostrils of mammals and the pair of rolled tentacles(rhinophones) behind the eye spots resemble the big ears of a hare.  The larger of the sea hares lay tens of millionns of eggs in spaghetti-like filaments.  They mate in large groups, live for around a year and can weigh 1 kg.  They feed on seaweed, seagrass and blue-green algae.  They release a purple ink when threatened.  The Aplysia sydneyensis was described by George Brettingham Sowerby III (1843-1921)  in 1869.  It is distributed from Southern WA to southern Qld and around Tasmainia and grows to 150mm. 

(Photograph by William Peters 11/2008)

The traditional Epiphany Celebrations will be held at Yarra Bay on Sunday January 11, 2009

Link to 2008 celebrations

Local residents are invited to attend the Land & Environment Court Hearing on site in Pine Avenue commencing 9.30am Wednesday 10th December.  The case will continue thereafter at the Court in Macquarie Street.  If you want to present specific evidence please contact Colin McFadzean, colin.mcfadzean@srbg.com.au  by midday 28th November.

Colin is a solicitor with Shaw, Reynolds, Bowen & Gerathy who are representing Randwick City Council against Stockland at this hearing.  Stockland are seeking to increase the height and the number of units at the entry to Prince Henry, as well as reduce the retailing and health centre.

Photographs:  (left)Aerial View of Site; (right)Solarach after fire in 2007; (below)Vegetation along frontage - large number of native trees dead, exotic pest species in flower.   The ex-UNSW site at Little Bay was gifted to the University for the establishment of a Medical School.  The School was never built but the site has been used for Biological Science research and very notably for Solar Energy Research.  Solarch, the first building to generate green power in NSW once stood on this site.  The site also contains a number of playing fields.  In 2006, the University decided that the site was surplus to its needs and obtained  permission from the Minister of Education, then Carmel Tebbutt, to sell. In early 2007  La Perouse Precinct Committee was briefed on a proposal to build around 150 town houses on this site.  The Solarch building was not to be retained and conveniently burnt down within days of the briefing.  The proposal was passed by Randwick Council and earlier this year the University sold the site to Charter Hall, a Property Funds Manager. 

Charter Hall are now proposing a new Masterplan for the site which will see between 400 and 600 dwellings.  The mix of buildings will include 5 x 5 storey  and 4 x 3 storey appartments.  Further details: 

The public face of the project is Elton Consulting.  The following appears on their website: www.elton.com.au  Projects include the Carlton Brewery re-development at Broadway and the Hillsong Rosebery proposal.  Directors include:  Brian Elton, a former General Manager in the Department of Housing;  James Evans,who co-authored and managed the production of the award winning Community Engagement in the NSW Planning System website and handbook as well as working on the State Plan and the Metropolitan Water Plan;  and Trish Oakley former Chief of Staff to the former Deputy Premier, Andrew Refshauge.* 

Elton Consulting conducted the first public consultation at Little Bay yesterday.  Features of the proposal include:

1.A walking and cycling path to connect Bilga Crescent Housing Estate with sites at Prince Henry.

2.A viewing platform for the Heritage Listed Miocene geological site and an opportunity to route the walking/cycling path to include this platform.  The Miocene site contains pollen of many species including the Wollemi Pine.  Link for detail.

3.Protection of the Ochre ‘mine’ in partnership with the La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council.

4.A road, passing by where Solarch once stood, has been tentatively named Solarch Avenue.

*At one point there was a proposal to develop this site as a state of the art Permaculture Village and according to a source from the now defunct Ecoliving Centre at UNSW (axed in 2006) there was support from Refshauge for this proposal……. if only! 

This development, which could add another 1500 residents to Little Bay, further supports the need for Stockland to develop the Shopping Villiage and Medical Centre at Prince Henry in accordance with the Landcom Award Winning Masterplan.