PAT CONROY, MEMBER FOR SHORTLAND: I’m Pat Conroy, the Federal Member for Shortland and I am joined by my great colleague and friend Dan Repacholi, the Member for Hunter. We’ve also got Commander Jim Wright, Commander of Lake Macquarie Marine Rescue, and Commodore Geoff Edman, Commodore of the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club.
Lake Macquarie – the lake itself – is the jewel of our community. It’s the reason why so many people live here, it’s the reason why so many people move up here, and it’s the reason why so many people visit us, and for too long, we’ve been suffering from silting up of the Channel which is impacting the enjoyment of the lake. Importantly, it’s not just impacting the enjoyment of the lake, it’s forcing more people to be rescued by Lake Macquarie Marine Rescue. Our Marine Rescue unit – which is a wonderful unit – is the busiest in the state, and half of all of their rescues are pulling people off the sandbar. We want them out there supporting our mariners rather than doing pulling off the sandbar, and that’s why a permanent dredge was a key election commitment from Dan and I.
We went into the last election committing $10 million for a permanent dredge for Lake Macquarie focused on the Swansea Channel, and we are proud to announce today that that funding agreement has been executed with Lake Macquarie City Council. The money is ready to flow, and the Council will soon be issuing a tender to acquire that dredge.
Importantly, to compliment the dredge, we are building a permanent sand pipeline transfer to Blacksmiths Beach. For too long, when there has been dredging, it’s just been put on Elizabeth Island over there and fallen back into the sea, particularly when there’s been a westerly wind, which has defeated the purpose of the dredging. So by funding a permanent dredge and the pipeline transfer infrastructure, that sand will be pulled out of the Swansea Channel and moved across to Blacksmiths Beach which is something our community has been fighting for.
This isn’t just about letting people enjoy the lake more, it’s also about economic development. So independent modelling from Lake Macquarie City Council has estimated 364 jobs will be created by this permanent dredge, as well as nearly 1,000 indirect jobs through the tourism and economic development that will flow from this. So today’s announcement is great news for the boaties of Lake Macquarie, but more importantly, it’s great news for everyone in our community who enjoys the lake or wants jobs in our community. So great news for boaties, great news for people after jobs in our community.
I’ll hand over to Dan to say a few words, then Geoff and Jim.
DAN REPACHOLI, MEMBER FOR HUNTER: Thanks Pat, it’s great to be here today. Three years ago, Pat and I stood here right next to Lake Macquarie with Catherine King and committed $10 million to go towards Lake Macquarie for a dredge. Today we are delivering on that commitment, and only a Labor Government, an Albanese Labor Government delivers on their commitments. $10 million for a dredge for this lake is absolutely fantastic for this area. As we heard Pat say earlier, it’s going to create 365 jobs in extra tourism in the area, just about 1,000 jobs in ongoing work around the area as well. This is amazing for our area, and as I said, I can’t be more proud than to stand here and let you all know that we committed that $10 million, and Council and us have now got an agreement to make this go forward.
So I’m looking forward to seeing the dredge on the lake very soon. It’s going to do amazing things. It’s going to get more boats to this area, and I can’t wait to see more activity on the lake. So thank you Pat for your hard work that you’ve put into this. You’ve been pushing hard for this for years and years, and now it’s finally happening. So thank you Pat, and thank you for letting me be a part of this. I’ll pass over to Commander Wright.
JIM WRIGHT, UNIT COMMANDER, MARINE RESCUE LAKE MACQUARIE: I’m Jim Wright, I’m the Unit Commander for Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie. Thanks Pat and Dan for the announcement today. We’re really pleased to hear that there’s going to be a permanent solution or a permanent dredge here in Lake Macquarie. It will certainly make our lives a lot easier for us. It’s a bit embarrassing to have yachts come down and big boats come down from outside who can’t actually get into our lake because of the problems in the Channel, so we’re delighted that it’s being rectified. We don’t like having to pull boats off sandbars. It can be a dangerous and difficult job at times, and so having the permanent dredge here and the Channel open all of the time and navigable is good news.
REPORTER: Can I ask you Jim how often you would have to do something like that?
UNIT COMMANDER WRIGHT: Oh it’s a weekly thing. It hasn’t been so bad as of late since the last dredging, but it’s already – the Channel is starting to block up particularly around the dog leg, the Channel has got a little narrow, so we are starting to get a few nowadays. But sometimes it’s because of an inexperienced person – someone from Sydney or whatever has come in and just charged up the lake and has missed the corner and run around.
REPORTER: And I guess the difference now is that the sand won’t be going on Elizabeth Island. How much of a difference do you think that will make?
UNIT COMMANDER WRIGHT: Oh I think it’s one of the best news out of this is that the sand is going away from the Channel and therefore it’s not likely to come back in as quickly as it does now. I think it will silt up again, but at least if we’ve got the dredge here and there’s a routine dredging of the Channel, that will be great.
REPORTER: Jim, how many manhours are you putting into pulling people off the sand?
UNIT COMMANDER WRIGHT: Oh I’ve got no number for that. I mean it varies – busy times it might be two or three a day. It depends on the boats that we’re towing off or whatever, the size, sometimes it’s a quick and easy job, other times it’s a job that we may not be able to do. We might have to get someone from one of the mariners whose got the equipment (inaudible).
REPORTER: But I guess this will free your crews up to?
UNIT COMMANDER WRIGHT: Oh yeah, it will free us up. As I say, we don’t like having to put a line onto a boat that’s (inaudible). It does raise issues for us, there’s a risk involved not only to the boat that we’re towing off but also to our boat and our crewmembers, which their safety is paramount.
REPORTER: And safety in general, I guess how much of a concern is having the sand in the lake in terms of safety?
UNIT COMMANDER WRIGHT: Well it’s always a concern. (inaudible) We have at times had to take people off boats until it can be salvaged at a later date.
CONROY: Thanks Jim, we might now invite Commodore Geoff.
GEOFF EDMAN, COMMODORE, LAKE MACQUARIE YACHT CLUB: Good morning. Geoff Edman, Commodore of Lake Macquarie Yacht Club. Thanks to Dan and Pat for inviting me along and making this announcement today. This is fantastic news for all yachts and boaties here in Lake Macquarie. We have a wonderful lake here. Lake Macquarie produces some of the best sailors in the world, not just in Olympic class – we have sailors from the lake in America’s Cup. We have a great tradition in providing sailors and yachts for races like Sydney to Hobart.
The fact that the lake’s Channel is going to be open is going to make it easier for our yachts to leave the lake and go down and get into these races. This weekend coming is the first time that we’ve been able to schedule offshore racing from our club in around about seven or eight years. So it’s great news for our yachties, and it’s great news for the lake.
REPORTER: Yeah there’ve been events and festivals and whatever that have had to have been called off, a lot of them even at the last minute because you couldn’t get any boats anywhere.
EDMAN: That’s quite correct. Our club is – we’ve run regattas for the state and the national regattas, and some of those haven’t been able to get the yachts that we’d like, and some of them haven’t been able to be held. I’ve been involved in Lakefest for the last eight or nine, ten years – whatever it’s been – and the whole intention of Lakefest is a celebration of the lake with yachts. We’ve been wanting to encourage yachts from Newcastle, Port Stephens, and Sydney to come up and join in that regatta. It’s a charity regatta that supports Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie and Cancer Council NSW, and we haven’t been able to until this year just gone get any boats from outside the lake to come in. With the clearing of the Channel last December, there’s been an obvious increase of yachts coming into the lake, cruising yachts as well as we’ve had visitors from other clubs outside of the lake coming up and joining our racing. So it’s fantastic news and it’s great for everyone.
REPORTER: We’ve heard about the possibility of new opportunities with some consistency in the lake. What kind of new things do you think we might be able to attract to the area?
EDMAN: There’s always been a reluctance for capital investment for marine work because there’s an understanding in yachties from outside the lake that if they come, they’re going to get caught and they can’t come out, so there’s a reluctance to actually come into the lake. So marine services and mariners will have some confidence now going into the next decade or more that those people from outside of the lake will be able to come into the lake.
Our club has just finished building a dedicated mast crane for servicing yacht masts. That’s something that we believe is the only one in hundreds of kilometres dedicated for servicing yacht masts in the water, and we only did that because we knew we’d be able to get boats that come in and use that facility. So that’s just a couple – and that’s without even including all of the cafes and the shops and the restaurants and all that around the lake that rely on - well not rely on, but benefit from the visitors from outside.
REPORTER: So is it fair to say that this has provided a peace of mind for people wanting to come to the lake?
EDMAN: We’ve got to get that word out. We’ve just had - our cruising division has just come back from a two-week cruise to Jervis Bay and back and they were telling me that everywhere they went, people were saying they’re just not game enough to come into the lake because they might get or caught or they’ll get stuck or they won’t get in. So we’ve got to get the word out to all of the other cruisers up and down the coast that the lake’s open for business and you can be safe and sure that you’ll be able to get in and out without any issue.
REPORTER: So Pat, a couple of questions –
CONROY: Sorry just before we go to that, just to supplement Commander Wright’s answer, the statistics that the Commodore provided me and his unit was that prior to the dredging that recently occurred, 50 per cent of their callouts were for pulling boats off the sandbar, and that is the busiest Marine Rescue unit in the entire state. So think about that, the busiest unit in the entire state, 50 per cent of callouts before the dredging started were callouts for pulling boats off. So as Commodore Geoff said, sailors who are moving up the coast can know that they can come into the lake, anchor their boat, have a meal in one of our beautiful restaurants, spend money in our local economy, help create jobs, help support families, and a permanent dredging solution, and as the Commodore said, it’s about getting the wording out to the boaties, the yachties, everyone who enjoys this lake around the country that the lake is open for business and we want them here.
REPORTER: Can I just ask on the timeframe – you said a tender early next year. When will we see this dredging operation happen and who’s going to be in charge of doing that?
CONROY: So the Council has informed me that the tender will actually be released in the next couple of weeks. It’s with the State Government for approval at the moment. Importantly, the timeline will be decided by whether they can buy a dredge off the shelf, or whether they need to design and build one, and that’s really up to each of the tenderers to decide because a critical part is efficiently interfacing with the sand transfer, the sand pipeline to get the sand to Blacksmiths.
So the advice I’ve got is if there’s an off the shelf solution, a tenderer offers that, it’s going to be able to move very quickly. If there’s a bit of design involved, it will take slightly longer, but the important thing is that everyone in the community can rest assured that we have a permanent dredge solution starting as soon as possible. Importantly, the sand is going over to Blacksmiths so it actually helps the beaches over there and keeps the sand away from the lake.
REPORTER: Also, will it be necessary for the tenderer to provide both aspects, the dredge and the pipeline, or are they separate contracts?
CONROY: No, they’ll be jointly there. So both of them will be involved. An important part of the tender will also be an optional extra to bid for an additional piece of pipeline infrastructure to get the sand all of the way down to the breakwater. We’re just seeing whether that’s affordable or whether that’s a future stage, but the sand will go over to Blacksmiths.
REPORTER: And just with that, obviously it sounds like it’s great news for the boating community, but I’ve heard some murmurs that it could be helpful for the surfing community up here depending on the pipeline. Could you talk me through that?
CONROY: Yeah, well I want to pay tribute to the Save Our Blacksmiths community group. They’re an awesome group who have been fighting to restore the surfing and swimming conditions at Blacksmiths Beach. So the first stage of that is getting sand to the beach which is what this will fund. The second stage will be whether there’s enough money to get the second pipeline all of the way down to the breakwater to drop the sand next to the surf club. We will see where the tenderers come with that, but it will improve conditions. This is one of the beaches my family uses the most and the conditions have changed over the last six or seven years which means it’s rougher which is not great for families like mine who’ve got kids that are sort of nine or 10 years old, and the surfers have told me that it’s really changed conditions out where they want to go. So this is an important start of that process, and I want to pay tribute – like the entire community of the lake on this, whether it’s Lake Macquarie Marine Rescue, whether it’s the yachties like Lake Macquarie Yacht Club and the Toronto Club, or the surfers at Blacksmiths, everyone wants this and we are finally providing a permanent solution to the issues here.