Wamberal Beach SOS Save our Sand

08/09/2026

CHECK THE FINE PRINT 😄

Fun fact: Nobody at Wamberal was ever promised a seawall.

Not in a contract of sale. Not in a zoning certificate. Not on a napkin at the surf club.

The ocean didn’t sign anything either.

Buying by the beach means living on the sea’s terms — that’s the deal, and it always was. Beachgoers are firmly warned to swim between the flags for their own good. Likewise, beachfront landowners were warned about the risks of beach living for their own good. That's called fierce compassion.

What we were all promised is a public beach. Let’s keep that one.

📧 [email protected]
Ask Minister Saffin to reject the s.68 seawall application.

Central Coast Council Central Coast Chronicle C Care - Cronulla Coastal areas regeneration effort ABC Central Coast Central Coast Newspapers COAST FM 963 David Harris MP LEAN Central Coast Friends of Terrigal Haven

04/09/2026

WHO CONSENTS? WHO PAYS? WHO MAINTAINS?

Before any rock seawall is considered, four simple questions:

Who has consented? Who has the money to build it? Who maintains it for the next 50 years? Who pays for the damage it does to the beach and surrounds?

A structure of this scale needs every affected owner on board, funding secured, and a maintenance and beach restoration plan for generations. The current application leaves those questions hanging.

A project that can’t answer the basics shouldn’t get a Section 68 tick.

📧 [email protected]
Ask Minister Saffin to reject the s.68 seawall application.

Discussion notes:

After five years of planning, the WPA was unable to obtain seawall DA consent from several private landowners, and the government landowner did not consent. That left about a dozen gaps. No go.

Worse, the WPA encouraged landowners to sign onto the DAs even if they could not or would not afford to fund the actual seawall construction. No go. That sounds shonky.

The cost of ongoing offshore sand nourishment in the wake massive rock wall scouring effects is an unknown. If funding falls over, the beach suffers. The cost of undoing the mistake would be enormous.

Several key WPA supporters and spokespeople are already selling out, leaving Wamberal. Neither the WPA or anyone else has the ability to compel anyone to pay for the rocks, indeed some beach landowners oppose the additional rocks and others oppose the high-risk vibration that would generated as proposed steel pilings are inserted along the beach to contain the rocks.

The WPA's playbook to date has been to push for approval now and work out funding and consent later. That is a recipe for project failure and would be a huge risk to the beach, making the entire s.68 proposal impossible.

Wamberal Beach already has the most significant rock revetment on the Central Coast. Sections that have no rocks remain the most resilient, bouncing back.

The beach is meant to be protected by many Positive Covenants that require landowners to replenish lost sand and vegetation after storms at their expense. In most cases those covenants have been broken. Why should we think covenant promises to restore the beach would be honoured in future?

Central Coast Newspapers Central Coast Council Janelle Saffin - Member for Lismore COAST FM 963 Friends of Terrigal Haven Wamberal Surf Life Saving Club LEAN Central Coast Triple M Central Coast Gosford Politics In The Pub C Care - Cronulla Coastal areas regeneration effort Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches David Harris MP David Mehan MP

04/09/2026

WHO CONSENTS? WHO PAYS? WHO MAINTAINS?

Before any rock seawall is considered, four simple questions:

Who has consented? Who has the money to build it? Who maintains it for the next 50 years? Who pays for the damage it does to the beach and surrounds?

A structure of this scale needs every affected owner on board, funding secured, and a maintenance and beach restoration plan for generations. The current application leaves those questions hanging.

A project that can’t answer the basics shouldn’t get a Section 68 tick.

📧 [email protected]
Ask Minister Saffin to reject the s.68 seawall application.

Discussion notes:

After five years of planning, the WPA was unable to obtain seawall DA consent from several private landowners, and the government landowner did not consent. That left about a dozen gaps. No go.

Worse, the WPA encouraged landowners to sign onto the DAs even if they could not or would not afford to fund the actual seawall construction. No go. That sounds shonky.

The cost of ongoing offshore sand nourishment in the wake massive rock wall scouring effects is an unknown. If funding falls over, the beach suffers. The cost of undoing the mistake would be enormous.

Several key WPA supporters and spokespeople are already selling out, leaving Wamberal. Neither the WPA or anyone else has the ability to compel anyone to pay for the rocks, indeed some beach landowners oppose the additional rocks and others oppose the high-risk vibration that would generated as proposed steel pilings are inserted along the beach to contain the rocks.

The WPA's playbook to date has been to push for approval now and work out funding and consent later. That is a recipe for project failure and would be a huge risk to the beach, making the entire s.68 proposal impossible.

Wamberal Beach already has the most significant rock revetment on the Central Coast. Sections that have no rocks remain the most resilient, bouncing back.

The beach is meant to be protected by many Positive Covenants that require landowners to replenish lost sand and vegetation after storms at their expense. In most cases those covenants have been broken. Why should we think covenant promises to restore the beach would be honoured in future?

02/09/2026

'VOTE' FOR A NO SEAWALL MAYOR

You may have seen the Coast Community News online poll for people’s choice Mayor.

On the Coast, the Mayor will of course be elected by councillors, not the public, but some councillors may consider community sentiment.

SOS thinks it is important to flag those councillors who have consistently voted for no seawall, so that you can send the signal that you do not want another “Seawall Mayor”.

Here are the councillors who have consistently voted to put the public beach first and oppose harmful hard structures:

Cr Margot Castles
Cr Helen Crowley
Cr Corinne Lamont
Cr Kyle McGregor
Cr Belinda Neal
Cr Jane Smith
Cr Sharon Walsh

Please make your No Seawall Mayor preference known at:

Coast Community News is conducting a public survey about who should be the Mayor for the next two years. A second question asks whether locals have a

01/09/2026

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE ENDS OF A ROCK SEAWALL?

Walls don't stop erosion. They move it.

Wave energy deflected off a seawall concentrates at each end - a well-documented "end effect."

At Wamberal, those ends point toward low-lying lagoon-side neighbourhoods.

Protecting a row of beachfront lots by sending water and erosion toward lagoon communities isn't coastal management. It's risk-shifting.

Our neighbours around the lagoon deserve better. So does the Minister's inbox.

📧 [email protected] Ask Minister Saffin to reject the s.68 seawall application.

30/08/2026

Central Coast Council ABC Central Coast Gordon Reid Mark Buttigieg MLC David Harris MP COAST FM 963 Liesl Tesch MP LEAN Central Coast Gosford Politics In The Pub Friends of Terrigal Haven

28/08/2026

**A ROCK WALL IS A HAZARD, NOT A FIX**

A rock wall doesn't absorb waves. It reflects them.

A rock wall doesn't stop erosion, it scours the beach in front of it.

The beach narrows. At high tide, there's rock, water — and nowhere safe to walk, swim or launch a rescue.

That's not protection. That's a public safety hazard, built on a public beach.

Coastal scientists have said it for decades: hard structures come at the beach's expense, not to mention adjacent lagoon flooding risk.

📧 [email protected] Ask Minister Janelle Saffin - Member for Lismore to reject the s.68 seawall application.

Central Coast Council ABC Central Coast Coast Community News Triple M Central Coast Central Coast Council Watch COAST FM 963 Gosford Politics In The Pub Friends of Terrigal Haven Friends of Avoca Dr. Gordon Reid MP Liesl Tesch MP David Harris MP David Mehan MP Wamberal Surf Life Saving Club LEAN Central Coast Abigail Boyd Mark Buttigieg MLC

27/08/2026

The beach is not broken

Here's the good news the seawall lobby won't tell you: the beach is not broken.

Beaches erode in storms and rebuild in calm weather. They've done it for thousands of years. Coastal geomorphologists call it a natural cycle — sand moves offshore, then comes home.

What breaks that cycle? A hard wall or illegal works that stop the sand from moving.

Wamberal doesn't need more armour. It needs sand — and a Minister who says no to the rock wall.

📧 [email protected] Ask Minister Janelle Saffin - Member for Lismore to reject the s.68 seawall application.

LEAN Central Coast Dr. Gordon Reid MP Liesl Tesch MP ABC Central Coast Central Coast Council Coast Community News Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches David Mehan MP David Harris MP COAST FM 963 Friends of Terrigal Haven Gosford Politics In The Pub Gosford West Ward Wamberal Surf Life Saving Club Central Coast Council Watch

26/08/2026

3,200 objections. One beach. One community.

When the last seawall scheme was put on the table, Wamberal answered with at least 3,200 written objections — one of the biggest community responses this coast has ever seen.

That wasn't anger. That was love — for a public beach that belongs to all of us.

Now there's a new Section 68 application before the Minister. Time to write again.

📧 [email protected] Ask Minister Saffin to reject the Wamberal s.68 seawall application.

23/08/2026