Let's not make more mistakes, by overlooking past mistakes .

 First
We can't do much once our reps get in,  but we can stop them getting in,  or  back in 

Second  
While we still have opportunity to choose political leaders,  lets laugh and cry over what they represent about US . 
At different times,  and with the waning and waxing of country  fortunes we get different types of leaders
What types of leaders do we want ?
Whether its Trump or Adhern ,Morrison ,Coker or Hart , let's  remember first that most of the people who chose them ( the popular lot ) probably chose them because ( at many times in history )
many of  those elected 

1. play dance and perform to impress the majority  
   
2. probably made themselves popular  by playing up to good impressions and making promises they probably can't keep - even when good intentions  are involved
3. told us  they were going to do things they probably cannot do ;
4. didn't realise that they themselves  were possibly playing puppets to,  if not their own purposes other people's,  power of their party and its prejudices and even popularity itself 
5. can't remind the crowd  that they both  cultivated the idea of living in dream land and therefore ,  they could be expected to be some of the worst people at trying to steer the ship ;to spend our savings on roads rubbish and really worthwhile new on ground works ---which are all hard work   
6. may well claim they are not responsible : "were not there :,"don't remember"   , "not my job " Some  excuses may even be true " half asleep"  "were snowed by sir H"
   
   While the above drivers are normal , they are not always thankfully the case , We can have leaders who know what they are doing and actually know why they want to serve others and how to get things done ( very important) 
   Such good leaders know they need to control Sir Humphrey . The above leaders are often controlled by sitrhumphrey the press or the changing impressions that go them there in the first place  
    2, 
   Lastly  How to get things done 
     Lets make this review real . 
   Lets make it LOCAL and review just a few ongoing severe planning MISTAKES  that have occurred under the long watch of long serving Counsellors ;
   (  Libby Coker at Surfcoast and Stephen  Hart at Colac Otway)  .
   
   To make it easy for you ,
   ask them why they didn't properly plan the use of public land , public interest and proper use of local resources in each case . 
   
   You may like to ask them why they're not party or responsible  to these longstanding unnecessary and obscene sores on the landscape   Still current and you can read about them via Otwaysonline.blogspot.com 
   
   
7. SURFCOAST  ( Coker )    houses evacuated below dam in East Torquay in October 2020  
   general congestion - no expansion of public spaces ;sale of public land which could have been used . 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

COLAC OTWAY   ( Stephen Hart has been on Council for four terms 16years and claims to represent the coast in particular  ) Just a few examples of many 
1. Failure to protect  or even develop  a plan to protect the beach ridge system in Apollo Bay north  ( see earlier  post ) 
 2. Failure to insist on a workable tourist site at the OTWAY FLY area  while it was still easy and plans were actually  in place  ( planning stages ) 
3. Failure to direct Great Ocean Green development in a sustainable direction.

How long does it take some people to work out what's wrong . The erosion of the beach at Apollo Bay and the way to control it

LAST WEEK
The Colac herald reported that people were at great risk of being run over as they tried to walk along the Great Ocean Road in the sections shown on the attached photos ,( South of Marriners lookout Road)  
 

20 YEARS OF INCOMPETENCE 
The Council look like getting more reports and being party to more suspect works  when the integration of the existing reports is the immediate thing needed to make progress with effective erosion control, beach dune restoration  and long term safe access . 
 
The process I want to see more of is  called sustainability. Sustainability requires integration not more hallucination . Its mo wonder the State Government via GORCA are now determined to tell our Colac Otway Council what we already know, that is "  they don't know what they are doing" .
After two decades of meddling and empire building ( The State  haven't given up on the former ) the State are finally going to reinstate me , well at least someone with some of my qualifications in  geomorphology .
I would rather our Council did a proper job so we would reduce the empire building( and the corruption risk that goes with it ), the growing fly in fly out cultures.  and actually have some money to fix the walks .  fat chance unless we work better together. 

OUR BEACHES RUINED -- unnecessarily 
Long standing members of this  Council were advised many times about land use control ,runoff storage and dispersal to protect the beach ridge system  as best as is possible under the conditions of reduced sand supply from the south  .
 Clearly not enough planning has been done with access and drainage pressures  to reduce the erosion of the beach dune system.  More attention to longitudinal and lateral grade maintaining measures are needed to ensure beach blown sand accumulates back in the foredune and dune.  Significant changes to access and parking are also needed( more of it placed into the swale were expected) 
While little can be done to replenish sand supply from the south ( since the harbour was built and the Barham bed load transfer is currently low , changes to pipe, surface drainage and water storage are still needed to help the dune stay more intact . Swales should be left for such a time as this . 

THE TOTAL ECOSYSTEM
A least one building and quite a lot of fill (eg along  the Joyce street crossing  area has to be removed from the swale so this can happen, More public access and use of the swale  ( say for parking and storm water storage) should have occurred decades ago.
The retention of beach is dependant on aggradation of sand in the dune system  .Clearly not enough has been done to limit pipe and drainage and access  impact.  Complex integration  advice was given to  Council members,  not only at on onsite meetings , but with various subdivisions and drainage plans. one of which is shown .

The State Subdivision Act provisions require all  Councils to take a very significant  percentage of the profit . from subdivisions and USE it to acquire more public land . where is it people ? 
  .We may never find out where that money went, but we expect the new Council to take back control of the swale and do the required works there 
Ignoring the requirement for proper beach ridge protection, the Colac Otway Shire Council have allowed buildings and works on the swale  .


Clearly Council to date have failed in their duty of care  because they,  like so many others before them, have seen only one,  or perhaps two, problems - the beach and the erosion,  and what some see as solutions (  More  like distractions - more reports from consultants ) 
We can all see the natural sea erosion which occurs from time to time . What is less obvious is the rebuilding of beach and dune by wind blown sand  and the normal transfer of sand  along the coast in the tidal zone . Instead of integrated planning and study we have streams of new ideas that ignore  the quiet extensive defaltion that goes on hour by hour across 50 metres of intertidal exposure when we are not there . Groins would not be expected to help here because there is little lateral transfer of sand in section shown : the subtle  wind processes are the key   

To protect something you need to protect the whole ecosystem, By not considering  the whole system Council  have thrown rock into what  is and should be a predominantly sand system and made it worse. The pipes are not only far bigger than they need to be,  the inverts and flood outlets are not even designed . 
Colac Otway Shire Council have turned a lovely sandy beach into a rocky one. 

 

THE BEACH RIDGE SYSTEM    

Clearly Council have yet to come to grips with the processes of sand movement which are only addressed by works which deal with a variety of natural erosion and accumulation processes from the beach  foredune dune to the swale. Storm runoff  was naturally designed to be accommodated in the swale area greatly reducing the huge pipe systems placed by flat earth engineers. 


Compromises  While the redevelopment of the swale is the key to much of the restoration,   recent   new building ,old low buildings  filling of swale, road , parking  and cutting of the dune(  and allowing erosion - tracks and car parks shown ) have yet to be addressed in the context of  restoring a  functioning beach ridge system. Letter refer to areas of concern 












Some of THE DETAIL on this post has been removed,  If you are not convinced that your Council has failed to take sound advice  from the above detail,  I am happy to receive genuine question s   ( Features like the swale acquisition and restoration   , the extra buildings on the swale  to be removed , carparking, safer and stable access routes  are not all shown partly because various planning matters have yet to be  properly integrated.  20 consultancies of experts in various fields doesn't guarantee a sound sustainable and workable outcome .  COT Council have yet to acknowledge the need for more swale, land drainage control and access changes . Sketches show some of the works still to be properly considered .

OTHER  NATURAL SAND SUPPLY CONSTRAINTS   
The protection of the swale is always necessary for periods when there is insufficient sand supply from the river .




We can't do much to restore the sand supply connection ( see discussion on Facebook  Otway Community News re Barham river ) and transfer south,  now that the harbour is built.  . The rock barrier for the harbour tends to drive the sand into the deep  sea ( presumably a big loss ) but  the restoration of the dune and no compromises in the swale ( as have been arranged south of the river mouth in the case of the Barham  ) are necessary,  possible and must be done first . ..