DEAR News Of The Area,

IT was good to read that the Council representatives recently in Hawks Nest agreed that the recent rains causing more water to flow down the eastern channel had scoured the sand build up.

A number of writers have suggested that the eastern tidal flow that was taken away should be returned.

The tidal flow was redirected to the western channel by the early fishermen and later by dredging as mentioned in the NOTA 16/06/2005 by Bob Adams of Hawks Nest.

He correctly stated: “Since that fateful day in 1979, the Short Cut Channel has been lost.”

I would urge those council officers to return to their office and revisit the Coastal Waters Science Unit report undertaken by Department of Environment Climate Change and Water as requested by Great Lakes Council and delivered in a 132 page report in 2010.

It compares how much more water flowed through the eastern channel in 1977 compared to 2009.

The report states: “The 1977 gauging data shows that Paddy Marr”s Channel provided over four times the ebb flow volume and over two times for the flood volume compared to Corrie Creek.”

The report on page 65 also states, in regard to the Winda Woppa erosion: “the apparent dominance of coastal (wave) processes and active sediment transport in the vicinity of the area of interest would probably result in limited capacity for a breach to remain open due to the comparatively less dominant fluvial processes down the Myall behind the spit.”

This in my language means that a stronger tidal flow in the eastern channel (Paddy Marr’s Channel) will keep the river mouth open from sand build up.

I am also of the opinion that it may reduce the wave power on Jimmy’s beach and possibly in the long term, rebuild Myall Point.

Can this be achieved by reducing the opening of Corrie Creek (eastern channel) to the Myall River?

Well, nothing else has worked, so let us return this part of the river to the way it used to be.

Regards,
Gerry GAMBLE,
Eleebana.