The State Government has confirmed it now monitor the Clyde River to determine when the channel needs to be dredged again.
The first dredging of the waterway since 2020 wrapped up ten days ago after around 30,000 cubic metres of sand was sucked up from the middle of the Batemans Bay waterway and relocated closer to the shoreline.
“One of the things we are wanting to do with the dredging we have achieved in Batemans Bay is getting that ongoing monitoring and data collection so that we are able to keep on top of it now that we have it under control,” Regional Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison, who is responsible for Maritime NSW said.
The dredging vessel operator also appears to some dropped some loads of the sand closer to beach areas like Surfside than the planned 600 metres out a move applauded by impacted homeowners at risk of further tidal inundation.
Strictly speaking Maritime NSW is only responsible for the navigability of the Clyde River, not sand dunes.
“All the work that Maritime does is funded under the Waterways fund which is from boat licences so it’s really looking at how we achieve that but of course when we are moving assets like sand around we can be responsive to other levels of government, other agencies to ensure we are doing the best and most useful and efficient purposes with that asset,” Minister Aitchison said.
“Dr Holland (Bega MP Michael Holland) has been really instrumental in this. In getting the community, the council, the Minister for the Environment as well as Maritime all engaged so we’re looking at this as one waterway.
“Everybody is doing a little bit. This is what you see when you have cooperation between different agencies, different levels of government working with community.”
