We are preparing a Coastal Management Program for our coastline.
A Coastal Management Program (CMP) is an action plan for Council and other authorities. It helps us to:
- address coastal hazard risks
- preserve habitats and cultural uses
- encourage sustainable agricultural, economic and built development in the coastal zone
- maintain or improve recreational amenity and resilience
- adapt to emerging issues such as population growth and climate change.
Coastal Management Programs are developed under the NSW Government's coastal management framework.
Study Area
Byron Shire has 35 kilometres of open coast.
We have three estuaries bounded by approximately 260 square kilometres of coastal catchments.
Our Shire’s beaches, headlands, estuaries, and catchments have varied environmental processes.
Due to the complex range of management issues, we are preparing three Coastal Management Programs.
- Open coast (Shire-wide).
- Belongil Creek estuary.
- Tallow Creek estuary.
A CMP for the Brunswick River estuary is a future priority.
The CMPs are being prepared in 5 stages.
STAGE 1: Identify the scope of the CMPs - Complete
We adopted two Coastal Management Programs (CMP) Stage 1 Scoping Studies covering:
- Open coast
- Belongil Creek estuary
- Tallow Creek estuary.
The scoping studies involved:
- Input from community and stakeholders on key threats and issues to the coastal zone.
- Identified information gaps to be addressed in Stage 2.
As part of Stage 1, we developed a Community and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy to guide consultation.
There will be more opportunities for community involvement as the CMP is prepared through stages 3 and 4.
STAGE 2: Risks, vulnerability and opportunities - In Progress
Stage 1 identified studies and activities needed to fill data gaps and prioritise management issues, including the following:
- Coastal hazard assessment - See our Coastal Hazards page for more information and to download the study documents.
- Continue design investigation for the modification of the coastal protections works at Main Beach, Byron Bay - 3 shortlisted design options have progressed to further evaluation. See our Main Beach Shoreline Project page for more information.
- Identification of water pollution sources and development of a pollution control program. - complete, see Document library on this page
- Review of Tallow and Belongil Creeks Entrance Opening Strategies.
- Review of mapping of coastal wetland and littoral rainforest areas. - complete, see Document library on this page.
- Study on impacts from recreational use and commercial tourism.
These will ensure the development of more effective management strategies and actions in Stage 3.
We will continue to seek State Government funding from the State Government Coast and Estuary Grants Program to assist.
STAGES 3, 4 and 5
This stage will start after the completion of Stage 2 studies and will include:
- identifying and evaluating options
- preparing, community consultation, and adopting a CMP, and then
- implementing, monitoring and reporting.