Developing Coffs Harbour foreshore will amount to a ‘desecration of the land', traditional owners say
The proposal, still in the early planning stages, would see up to 250 residential dwellings and 200 short-stay units built on two 'underutilised' lots within the 60-hectare foreshore precinct, subject to planning approvals.
Property and Development NSW (PDNSW), the central property agency for the New South Wales government, is leading the process and says the development would 'create a thriving economic hub by co-locating tourism, housing and non-residential uses' and include 'shops, boardwalk cafes, restaurants, markets, entertainment, and water-themed play areas'.
Gumbaynggirr Elder Uncle Reginald Craig, however, believes the plans equate to 'desecration of the land'.
'This is land on which we have lived and roamed for thousands of years, it would be heartbreaking to see it developed,' says Craig, a representative of the Garlambirla Guuyu-girrwaa Elders Group.
A multi-level residential development is 'inappropriate' in close proximity to a 'web of sacred sites', he says.
Craig, now in his 70s, grew up surfing the beach breaks of the foreshore, and recalls Gumbaynggirr people living 'amongst the environment, in the sand hills'.
A draft Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment Report, prepared for PDNSW by archaeological consultants Artefact Heritage and Environment, refers to 'a number of highly significant Aboriginal Ceremony and Dreaming sites' within the precinct, including middens, a stone quarry and potential burial sites.
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One potential site – assessed as being 'likely to contain Pleistocene deposits', which are between 50,000 and 11,700 years old – was listed as being potentially impacted by proposed new infrastructure, as was a possible burial site where quartz artefacts were located.
None of the significant sites identified sit directly within the footprint of the proposed residential development.
Parts of the precinct are currently subject to two undetermined Aboriginal land claims.
One significant site within the precinct boundary is the heritage-listed 'Ferguson's Cottage', which became a safe haven for local children during the 1960s, and a refuge for Aboriginal people moved off missions.
Another key site is a fenced-off area of land known as 'Happy Valley', which sits just outside the boundary of the proposed development, and has served as a campsite for Gumbaynggirr people for thousands of years.
The site continues to be inhabited today and was the subject of a successful land claim by the Coffs Harbour and District Local Aboriginal Land Council in 2022.
Christopher Mercy, who has lived at Happy Valley for 21 years, says he is largely unaware of the details of development plans and claims to have received no contact from the state government regarding the proposal.
'I would have expected someone to come and have a yarn with me,' he says.
PDNSW began consultation in 2019 and more than 3,600 people provided feedback on the initial master plan for the project in 2022. That same year, PDNSW engaged Aboriginal engagement specialists Murawin to coordinate a series of consultations with the Gumbaynggirr people.
According to the resulting report, 50 community members engaged with the process, many repeatedly. A majority were 'strongly opposed' to six-storey build heights and offered objections to the use of land for private residential accommodation.
Aunty Yvette Pacey, the former chairperson of the Coffs Harbour and District Local Aboriginal Land Council, says the consultation process has felt predetermined.
'I have spent more than 12 years with these people, trying to convince them of the importance of the site, that we need to have cultural spaces preserved, and no one is listening,' she says.
According to PDNSW, the strategic plan makes consideration for the protection of significant cultural sites including Ferguson's Cottage, Happy Valley and the nearby Muttonbird Island (Giidany Miirlarl).
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A rezoning proposal is currently being assessed by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. The project has yet to be referred for cultural heritage and environmental assessment.
The proposed redevelopment, introduced by the Coalition and picked up by Labor after the 2023 state election, has the firm support of the Coffs Harbour MP Gurmesh Singh. Despite regular protests locally, he told NSW parliament last month that 'most residents quietly support the project, even if they have been drowned out by the noisy minority'.
'For decades, the Jetty Foreshores has been the subject of plans that never got off the ground,' Singh told Guardian Australia.
'The plan is the most modest of all the plans proposed so far, and both the former Coalition Government and the current Labor Government have committed that all proceeds raised from the precinct will be spent improving the precinct.'
Singh says the foreshore is 'underused', 'tired' and doesn't reflect the potential of Coffs Harbour.
The proposal also has the backing of the current pro-development mayor and a majority of local councillors, despite the results of a poll – organised by the previous anti-development council for the local government election day last year – which asked residents if they agreed that some foreshore land should be used for multi-level private development. Some 68% of the 33,161 respondents answered no.
The Coffs Harbour mayor, Nikki Williams, says the poll 'lacked context and didn't explain the full proposal'.
'It's impossible to identify community support for a full precinct master plan in one question,' she says.
Williams says the proposed redevelopment would add 'high-quality, medium-density homes in the right location' which would have 'a positive impact across the entire housing spectrum'.
Coffs Harbour is one the state's worst housing stress hotspots.
According to the New South Wales Regional Housing Need Report 2023, developed by the Regional Australia Institute and Shelter NSW, Coffs Harbour has the fourth highest housing needs of any regional local government area in the state.
Pete's Place, a local homelessness engagement hub, sees 70-120 people daily.
Its team leader, Gai Newman, says housing availability and affordability – made worse by a succession of natural disasters – are key drivers of housing stress in the region.
There is no explicit provision for affordable housing in the proposed foreshore development.
The Labor councillor Tony Judge says the proposal would 'change the whole character of the area'.
'Everything we enjoy doing will be overlooked by 25-metre blocks of flats,' he says.
Douglas Connor is a journalist and editor on the NSW mid-north coast
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