PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has outlined the Federal Government’s policy response to Mid-North Coast communities affected by coastal erosion.
Mr Rudd acknowledged the plight of Lake Cathie and Old Bar residents under threat from receding shorelines in his response to a question in Parliament today from Independent MP for Lyne, Robert Oakeshott.
Mr Oakeshott said the growing risk of private and public property loss from coastal erosion throughout Australia demanded a co-ordinated policy response from all levels of government.
“At the moment we are seeing councils with limited resources trying to manage this issue on a case-by-case basis and I think we have widespread agreement that this is not a workable long-term arrangement,” Mr Oakeshott said.
“The Federal Government now has a responsibility to take the lead in establishing a sustainable policy framework to manage this issue alongside state and local governments into the future.”
Read more ›
Leave a comment
An introduced species to Australia, the Indian Myna Bird, is described by the World Conservation Union as being among the world’s 100 most invasive species. It has been assigned an Extreme Threat category for Australia.
But not so in Lake Cathie where a trapping program underway for the past two years has reduced numbers dramatically. So much so that Mrs Lynal Lawson, a local resident, sent an email to Hastings Landcare stating she hardly ever sees the bird around her house these days. Mrs Lawson wished to congratulate the people responsible for the achievement.
Those congratulations belong to the Lake Cathie Landcare Group headed by Supervisor, John Hunt, and a willing band of local residents who place traps in their backyards and monitor them daily. Any native birds entering the traps are released immediately unharmed.
Read more ›
Leave a comment
Lake Cathie Progress Association is heaping praise on the efforts of FAWNA (For Australian Wildlife Needing Aid) following their efforts to locate and help an injured Pelican at Lake Cathie.
In the first week of May this year the Progress Association directed a resident who had sighted a Pelican with a broken beak to FAWNA for assistance.
FAWNA conducted 24 searches of the estuary including the use of a boat to search the upper parts of Cathie Creek without success.
Eleven weeks later on July 22 FAWNA located the Pelican on an island near the Kenwood Causeway.
Read more ›
Leave a comment
