ANOTHER month has gone by and little change to the Covid restrictions, with the exception that we got a little closer to the pandemic with a small outbreak in Port Stephens.

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Thankfully that seems to have been contained, however the scare resulted in the halting of the important Ferry trade for a quarantine period.

Despite the restrictions, we are pleased to report on a number of events, hopefully of interest to the community.

Along the waterfront, adjacent to ANZAC Park, walkers will note a change in height to the sculpture bringing it more to notice.

Often overlooked, it is entitled “River Relic”, sculptured by Murray Brown, well known contributor to Sydney’s “Sculpture by the Sea”.

The artwork is in recognition to 12 wrecks in our vicinity and the final resting place for eight, including the “Iluka”, whose bones are showing directly opposite the sculpture.

We are also able to report that the naming of the 3 public wharves in Tea Gardens has been finalised.

The plaques have been printed and will shortly be mounted on the wharves.

Generous donations of time and equipment has resulted in the installation of LED lighting within the Moira Pde parking area. These lights are high technology and expected to have a life well in excess of 10 years. Our thanks to all contributors.

The Tea Gardens Police station upgrade continues to be a riddle.

The Dept suddenly announced they were closing the station for 2 weeks for stage 2 of the upgrade and a number of tradies descended on the site.

After 1 week we note an outside paint job and obviously work on the inside, however, no community group has been told what stage 2 represents, nor if there will be stage 3 etc.

One suggestion we have is that should the bureaucrats have future training sessions, they should include a brief on community communication.

The Bulahdelah Chamber of Commerce have reported that they are experiencing a welcome increase in visitor numbers since travel restrictions in NSW were lifted.

No doubt assisted by the opening of the Big 4 caravan park and the “Island” cycleway.

The SE low caused considerable sand loss on Jimmys Beach and luckily no serious damage was incurred.

Council have buttressed up the worst section and with the dredge on site, will begin pumping sand directly from the dredge on Mon 10th.

The dredge will be here until end Sept and currently moving 1100 cu.m. a day.

We are told the depth of the removal is 3.5m AHD which will provide a greater exchange of oceanic water into the river as well as cater for faster access for the boating fraternity.

Now the really good news.

Several community groups have been rewarded with State and Federal funding grants.

The Boating Now program has awarded the Tea Gardens Slipway Assn a grant of $485892 to upgrade the Slip, the Progress Assn has won Federal funding to repair erosion damage along the ANZAC Park Foreshore and the MRAG, a grant of $330000 to upgrade the Tea Gardens boat ramp.

The MRAG is continuing to lobby for upgrades to Moira Pd. and Ogden St. ramps