Conroy Park ~ another example of sand and tree loss!
Is a denuded coastline our future before action is taken?
Update October 2025
Sand carting in November is a temporary action
After many years of sand loss at Corlette Beach, a popular swimming destination for locals and tourists, Council recognises the ongoing shoreline erosion is presenting a risk to public safety and the recreational access from Conroy Park and the amenity of the beach is being impacted. In the interim, there’s been considerable irreplaceable tree loss with the delayed action.
Sand carting in November will temporarily restore the beach amenity at a cost of $75,000 under funding through the Coastal and Estuary Grants Program. Its longevity is unknown.
Council reports in its Have your say (October 2025):
“The proposed sand carting to move accumulated sand from the western end of the beach next to The Anchorage breakwater further to the east to enable it to be gradually transported westward in front of Conroy Park to provide improved amenity value and prevent burial of storm water outlets at Corlette Beach.
Sand nourishment is a temporary response to the ongoing severe coastal erosion experienced at Corlette. The design life of the nourishment is contingent on weather and is difficult to predict. In response to this, the Coastal Management Program (CMP) will continue to monitor sand movement in Corlette and undertake nourishment on an annual basis or as required.
The project includes:
- Sand will be transported from borrow site at the western end of Corlette beach foreshore to the erosion areas aligning Conroy Park.
- Sand will be shaped into place using a combination of posi-track loaders and a 14 tonne excavator.“
Sand carting or beach nourishment is permitted as a temporary action under the CMP, however it comes with some issues that also need to be considered and are outlined here.
An unsatisfactory statewide process
Such replenishment is welcome here but is a temporary fix only. Funding is not available through the Coastal Management Program until the situation becomes dire and triggers a threshold. There’s no opportunity for precautionary action — instead we have had to watch our coastal trees fall into the ocean.
Is this the future for our beautiful tree-lined estuary along our sandy beaches?
Story over 10 years to July 2025
We are all feeling climate impacts in so many ways, and certainly seeing the changes wrought on our coastlines with the more frequent and severe storms. Beach erosion is widespread — none can be more devastating than that at Shoal Bay where it is threatening to undermine the road. That is a story coming soon.
Meanwhile, at Conroy Park in Corlette, landcare residents are distressed at what is happening and the seemingly lack of protective or remedial action for many years despite early recognition and the only approved coastal plan.
Corlette beach and Conroy Park serve an important role in the community as a popular social space which contributes to the social cohesion and supports the mental and physical well-being of both residents and visitors. On these measures alone it is an asset worthy of protection.
** Click on arrows > below to open up that story
A history of planning, assessment and cries for urgent help, date back much more than 10 years!
This issue is so long-standing at Conroy Park that the Council launched a study into beach erosion at Corlette in March 2015 to assess options to prevent the ongoing erosion of the foreshore at Corlette. Council’s (then) strategy and environment manager Tim Crosdale said since the 1950s it is estimated about 50 metres of the foreshore reserve has been lost at Conroy Park and Sandy Point. “Our role here is to ensure that what’s there is protected to the best extent possible.” … We’re confident we’ll be able to find an appropriate design.”
The council appointed environmental engineering firm Whitehead and Associates to undertake the six-month study and come up with three possible options.
Over the last 10 years community has raised the alarm about the erosion at Conroy Park and Corlette.
2018 reported in NOTA, claims of an apparent ignored development consent for the Anchorage Hotel/Marina required sand to be appropriately shifted from west to east to protect erosion at Conroy Park, as the sea wall prevented the natural eastward sand drift.
June 2019, NOTA reports Foreshore Erosion puts Popular Conroy Park at Risk, as did the Examiner, reminding of threats to the toilet block.
Image: Conroy Park erosion showing fallen trees and the threatened toilet block.
Sept 2020 the Examiner headlines that Conroy beach is being washed away from sand erosion. Port Stephens Council has rejected suggestions that sand nourishment along Conroy beach at Corlette has been washed away, while conceding that some of the higher placed sand had “washed to a lower level”.
Local reported that apparently there has been a couple of sand nourishing opportunities undertaken. While we did not have immediate access to the Whitehead report, it seems a couple per year at least were recommended.
What happened to the Whitehead plan commissioned in 2015? It was seemingly not implemented over the ensuing 10 years.
Now the report commissioned in 2015 is a Ministerial approved plan, part of the Coastal Management Plan
Ten years later, following degraded sand bags, more lost foreshore, more fallen trees, inundation reaching the amenities block, we have a massive Port Stephens Coastal Management Program (CMP) which provides a framework for managing priority coastal threats now and into the future.
The CMP states, there “… is single site-specific management plan, the Sandy Point/ Conroy Park Foreshore Erosion and Drainage Management Plan (Whitehead and Assoc., 2015), which was certified by the Minister as a Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP).”
This CZMP, nearly 10 years old since its commissioning, remains the prime strategy in the CMP for Conroy Park. The CMP’s main directions for Conroy Park are excerpted here
Fast forward to July 2025, two devastated residents write again calling for action
By Meg and Neal Foster
Corlette Residents,
Volunteers with Conroy Park Corlette Foreshore Group
July 2025
The Fosters sent letters to Council, Elected representatives, Government agencies and Environment groups
Leah Anderson, Mayor Port Stephens Council
The General Manager, Port Stephens Council
Ros Armstrong, Councillor
admin.hunter@lls.nsw.gov.au
cl.enquiries@crownland.nsw.gov.au
psglmp@dpi.nsw.gov.au
EcoNetwork Port Stephens
Minister for the Environment NSW
Greening Australia
Kate Washington MP
Meryl Swanson MP
3/7/25
To whomever it may concern across various agencies responsible for or interested in the protection and maintenance of foreshores and infrastructure in NSW.
Re Corlette Beach and Conroy Park, Nelson Bay, Port Stephens, NSW.
Further to our letter to Port Stephens Council on 14th May 2025 where we noted the serious erosion occurring rapidly at Conroy Park and Corlette beach, we are again writing to express our concern over this escalating situation.
Since May, without any intervention from Council aside from taping the area off, rain events continued to erode the vulnerable foreshore. 5 mature trees were lost, despite notification to Council about this risk! No action was taken until the trees posed a significant and immediate danger. Once they were finally assessed by an arborist, machinery was on site the next day and these trees were removed (although a large stump remains on site within a Landcare rehabilitation area). The cost of this operation would have been significant in comparison to the cost of applying interim protection measures, such as sandbags, to protect this area until more controlled and planned remediation can occur, apparently in August 2025.
Trees lost and amenities block threatened July 2025
Water came over the edge and actually reached the amenities block (further right out of image)
The amenities block at the park is at imminent risk of becoming undermined by the next severe weather event. Of more concern, and the focus of this letter, is the fate of the 4 remaining mature trees here. They sit in front of the amenities block to one side, and we fear that these trees will be sacrificed whilst agencies sit on their hands awaiting critical damage to the amenity block to trigger emergency funding.
What value is placed on such trees? They are remnant examples of the disappearing vegetation which is so vital to this area, both in terms of public amenity, shade and beauty, but also forming an integral part of dune stabilisation here. Surely there is a mechanism which allows such irreplaceable vegetation to be protected. An aging amenities block can be replaced. Mature, environmentally significant trees cannot.
The recent East Coast Low has predictably caused further serious erosion which has continued to undermine these trees, as well as completely reshaping the beach and subsequent marine hydraulics here.
Further west on the beach, in its centre, the storm water outlet remains in urgent need of clearing. It has formed a significant eroded bank along the beach >1.5metre high, cutting into the precious dune system here, further threatening the single mature blackbutt tree here, which is under regeneration. We spoke with a Council Engineer in May this year but no action has been forthcoming from Council and the loss of vegetated foreshore continues at pace.
Drain requiring clearing out to stop it cutting into the dune system
Erosion and loss of rehabilitating dune vegetation
Once again, we request that all parties take the time to inspect the devastation unfolding at this important community beach and parkland. The photos taken below on 2/7/25 clearly show the damage being wreaked through inaction at this site.
We ask that urgent consideration be given to the immediate interim placement of sandbags to protect these trees until further remediation can occur.
We also ask that the drain is cleared as a matter of priority to prevent further loss of the dune system here.
We understand that all agencies are overloaded with coastal erosion up the entire east coast. None-the-less it does not excuse inaction or failure to act effectively which is leading to a significant loss of foreshore and an exponential rise in the cost of intervention and long-term management in the Coastal Management Plan.
Yours sincerely
Meg and Neal Foster
Corlette Residents
Volunteers with Conroy Park Corlette Foreshore Group
Reiterating the Foster’s call in their letter above: “We understand that all agencies are overloaded with coastal erosion up the entire east coast. None-the-less it does not excuse inaction or failure to act effectively which is leading to a significant loss of foreshore and an exponential rise in the cost of intervention and long-term management in the Coastal Management Plan.”
Why are we waiting for implementation?
Conroy Park has the only site-specific management plan prior to the Coastal Management Plan, which is now a Ministerial approved zone plan.
Community is calling for immediate action to retain access and protect the coastline, trees and amenities here at Conroy Park, before more cost is incurred and more trees lost.
The actions from the CMP are outlined below, though are not programmed to commence at least another year or more.
The Coastal Management Plan recommends:
The first stage and ongoing is: “Undertake sand carting / beach nourishment to provide improved beach access and amenity.” (RA016)”. This will also help protect the coastline and the trees.
This is a simple action, and all actions have cost, though it is not programmed to commence, and then with more planning and approvals, until the second year of the CMP (2026-2027?). Meanwhile more trees are lost until the entire foreshore may be denuded.
Additionally, the Foster’s in their letter above, simply call for the drain to be cleared to prevent further erosion from this aspect.
The concurrent stage is more detailed: “Progress investigations, detailed design and costings for priority options from the Whitehead and Assoc. (2015) Management Plan for Sandy Point/Conroy Park, namely, to demolish existing structures and construct new coastal protection works in Precinct 3, 4 and 5.”
This will take another 10+ years before it is programmed for implementation, after more designing and monitoring which “Enables develop(ment) of a ‘shovel-ready’ project ready for implementation in the next CMP (2035-2045).”, another 10-20 years.
Further delays are not only more costly, but we are losing our valuable nature
As the Foster’s claim … “inaction or failure to act effectively, is leading to a significant loss of foreshore and an exponential rise in the cost of intervention and long-term management in the Coastal Management Plan.”
After all, it is now nearly 10 years since the Council first commissioned the study as to what to do. Time to act is now.
It seems the CMP is primarily about protecting Council assets, in this instance the amenities block. What of our natural assets, our foreshore and its vegetation?
Action now will help save what remains of the foreshore, the associated vegetation and trees.
What value do we put on nature?
STOP PRESS!
The Fosters and the landcare coordinator, Margaret Wilkinson, heard from Council as this article goes to press.
Sandbagging will start Thursday 10 July.
And it did!
Did the Fosters letter precipitate Council’s action, or was the imminent threat to Council’s asset the trigger for action?
(Image by Jan Todd on
Facebook, Corlette Happenings”)
Further reading and references
Whitehead and Associates (2016) Sandy Point / Conroy Park Foreshore Erosion and Drainage Management Plan.Prepared for Port Stephens Council.