authorities over 3 years to have the natural channel of the Myall River opened to open sea. We have experienced long periods of low salinity resulting in the closure of the oyster industry which has been in Tea Gardens for over 100 years. The river has been badly choked up and cannot flush spent water properly; in fact the exchange with fresh sea water is now taking 40 days instead of the normal 5
– 10 days. This is also causing long periods of fish experiencing severe ulceration. The cause of this is due to sand movements around the Bay, in particular the northern shore and whilst the Government dredged the river regularly until 1998, it ceased at that time due financial restrictions. That sand has also meant that there is now a walkway from the mainland onto a Ramsar listed island called Corrie and migratory birds are under threat from foxes, cats and dingoes. Through the group, we have achieved the completion of two studies, one shows the river is comparatively healthy (for the moment), the other concludes that for the river to return to normal, dredging should be carried out and Council, who organized the studies have requested public comment as to whether they want the dredging to be carried out. We need all the letters we can get over the next couple of weeks. They should be addressed to ---The General Manager, Great Lakes Shire Council PO Box 450 Forster NSW 2428. It is probably easier to simply email your thoughts to [email protected]
If we don’t get the public support then the river as we knew it will be lost for ever.
