Heavy machinery needed three times in the past year to rid Towradgi Pool of sand

 AS locals know only too well, sand movement has been a major challenge at Towradgi Rock Pool over the past 12 months.

Wollongong City Council’s specialised rock pool crew have needed to use heavy machinery three times in the past year to empty out the pools.

Right now, Council is preparing to empty and clean out Towradgi Rock Pool once again as soon as the current tide, sea and swell conditions permit.

However, changes have been made to how Council goes about the work to better address the ongoing challenge of the natural coastal processes which has seen large volumes of sand remain on beaches.

Before Council does any work in a sensitive environment, a Review of Environmental Factors (REF) is undertaken. The REF steps through the potential environmental impact of any works and provides site-specific guidelines on how to reduce impacts to waterways, cultural and historic heritage and plants and animals. An REF also ensures a range of legislative requirements and procedures is met.

For this location, Council needed to consider how to protect native plants and animals at the beach, how to mitigate risks to the sensitive marine environment when bringing heavy machinery onto the beach, consider the heritage of the area, and manage community assets including caring for the pool shell and the concourse.

This year, Council proactively updated the REF for the cleaning of Towradgi Rock Pool. The updated REF means an alternative location north of the pools has been identified to place the sand, enabling heavier machinery to do the job.

Council Director Infrastructure and Works Director Joanne Page said the REF provides a complete picture of what needs to be managed in the space, allowing the work to proceed while protecting the local environment and its features.

“It also provides strict guidelines and approvals on how we can do our work,” Ms Page said.

“In this case we wanted to proactively review the existing REF for Towradgi Rock Pool because the existing one was limiting us in terms of what machinery we could use for the works, and where we could place sand that was removed from the pool.

“As a result of our assessment work we’re now able to place the sand to the north of the pool which, it’s hoped, will reduce the risk of it re-entering the pool as quickly. We can also use larger machinery.

“We’re optimistic that this will allow us to clean the pool more quickly and reduce the speed at which the sand will return to the pool.”

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