Residents support council against golf proposal  

Council is not the only one against this proposal which purports to be a golf resort, and a 9-hole one at that, not even world class.

The majority of residents from the Helensburgh district are against it as well and support Council on this extreme blotch sitting in the middle of a highly sensitive biodiversity environmental area, to the extent, that locals have produced two video documentaries available on the internet showing what would happen to this beautiful biodiversity area including one showing the extreme weather conditions in such an isolated area.

To say the activity won’t affect the surrounding catchment areas is ludicrous to the extreme as I have read unbiased reports.

This is a proposal that was supported whole heartedly by corrupt former general manager Rod Oxley and certain members of the former council who are no longer there. But the local residents still are.

Council just refused 6 lots x 40 hectares with one house each in the area opposite for environmental concerns. Why should 400 living quarters that are to be sold off, no matter how you describe them and making it an obvious real estate subdivision, be allowed on only 56 hectares without affecting the surrounding environment without any guarantees from the developer?

Alan Bond

Groundwater movement

"Did you know that golf courses pump out thousands of litres of fertiliser overflows through groundwater which have adverse effects on surrounding vegetation and affects the macroinvertebrates in waterbodies?

Hurstville Golf Course had to spend a heap of money to install a coffering dam and pump to remove fertiliser run-off from entering a wetland system. The golf courses around Manly have been subjected to the same protocols which are based around containment of wastes onsite and fertiliser excess in groundwater is classified as a waste product and must be contained onsite.

The large flowing groundwater system which eventually flows into the Woronora Catchment will be affected by nutrient increases from fertilisers used to quickly pasture improve the soils to grow specialised turf which requires more nutrients than what is provided by native soils, so the level of fertiliser nutrients will cause algal blooms where they spring up out of the rocks. O'Hares Creek, Hacking River, Woronora catchment and Avon Dam catchments will all be affected by increased nutrient levels in the groundwater.

The chemical structure of the surrounding soils will also be altered. There is some good info on the effects of fertilisers from golf courses at the Narrabeen Env Centre and Manly Hydraulic lab at Manly Dam. Although surface catchment boundaries are outside of the development site, the underlying geology and the altered surface runoff from roads extend surface catchment boundaries and with the geology of the Woronora underlying the developed area shows groundwater movement beyond surface catchment boundaries. Theses all affect the SEPP for uplands swamps, hanging swamps and all other ecological communities including laterite soil communities and sandstone gully vegetative communities. The area also has a significant Giant Burrowing frog H population gazetted by the National Parks Threatened species unit along with all the vegetative communities in the area.

I have a whole heap more info on groundwater movement through the plateau if required.

Martin Chessell
(Supplied by  Alan Bond)

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