Construction of the new raised plastic boardwalk at Manly Dam has commenced. The REF states the link trail is to be approximately 433 m long and will consist of a raised 1.8m wide fiberglass reinforced plastic boardwalk on galvanised steel pilings traversing bushland to finish at the northern end with a short section of coloured concrete path.
The width of the boardwalk had also previously been reduced from 2.2m wide to 1.8m wide based on feedback received by the Northern Beaches Council from the Manly Warringah War Memorial State Park Advisory Committee.
Council's webpage also states the boardwalk is proposed to be approximately 392m long, with concrete paths added on at end points.
The REF states the works would impact 0.12 ha or 1200 m2 of native vegetation, with 1.8m x 433m = 779.4 m2 of bushland removed in the footprint of the pathway, or 0.0779 of a hectare.
The project has all the hallmarks of a fait accompli as the announcement of the project took place on March 14, 2021 via the then NSW State Government's Metropolitan Greenspace Program and Council's agreement to a like for like funding.
This had been preceded by the 2019-2020 Recommended Council Project Funding of $859,952.00 to the NBC for a Trail and Boardwalk at the site.
North Harbour Reserve received $200k under the same grant system in 2020-21 grants round, $599, 720 for the Bayview shared path which has just been completed in the 2021-22 grants and $450,000.00 for Freshwater Beach playground in 2022-23.
Under the Places to Roam (PTR) aligned program, funded under the aligned $50 million Open Spaces Program for new and improved open spaces to swim, play, roam and ride and connect with nature, Northern Beaches Council received two grants in the 2021-22 successful grant projects; Frenchs Forest, the Pipeline Active Transport Corridor, $2,137,080.00, currently on pause for a re-plan, and for Freshwater, the McKillop Headland Boardwalk and Artwork, $1,550,000.00.
Sydney metropolitan councils can also apply for funding for community garden and bushcare programs under PTR - but so far Warriewood creeks remain choked with weeds and dying.
The MGP is a long running open space grants program, which started in 1983. The 2023-24 objectives are to:
- improve regionally significant open space, including links between bushland, parks, centres and waterways
- enable more effective public use of regionally significant open space
- improve access to a diverse mix of open space opportunities for the community of Greater Sydney and the Central Coast
- promote partnerships between state and local government
- support projects that demonstrate a commitment to improved outcomes for health, sustainability, climate change and communities.
- to provide and improve open space that supports housing supply.
Mentioned again in these objectives is:
Priority will be given to projects that increase and improve open space to support housing supply.
Manly Warringah War Memorial State Park (Manly Dam) is a 375 hectare bushland reserve. A November 2021 Study recorded 1124 species of plants in the study area, including five NSW-listed vulnerable species, two endangered and one critically endangered species. In the animal and insect world, 38 mammals, 172 bird species, including some migratory birds, 11 species of frogs, 43 species of reptiles, 92 species of insects and 15 species of spiders, along with fish, including the Climbing Galaxias, freshwater crustaceans and aquatic macroinvertebrates call this State Park home.
The vision for Manly Warringah War Memorial Park (in Warringah Council the Plan of Management of 2014) is:
A large protected area of bushland and waterways, with a diversity of flora and fauna, high water quality and scenic value, that ensures protection of its natural environment and cultural values, conserves threatened species and communities, provides opportunity for a variety of recreational activities in a low-key natural setting, offers an educational asset and acknowledges its importance as a war memorial park.
However the first 600 acres, gazetted on December 8 1939 was 'for public recreation' and continued the same as more parcels were added - no mention was ever made of what the site was already home to, or how important this site may now be in the ever-diminishing bushland of the Sydney basin as a place for nature.
A Community Consultation for the Manly Dam trail via the Northern Beaches Council ran 11 February 2022 to 13 March 2022, almost a year after the March 2021 photo op., and two years after the grant had already been allocated.
Other photos, taken by the Save Manly Dam Bushland on Saturday July 27 2024, show some of the footprint of the works so far:
The Save Manly Dam Bushland posted on social media on the same day:
IS THIS WHAT THEY CALL "STEWARDSHIP" ?Northern Beaches Council has the significant responsibility of caring for Manly Warringah War Memorial Park. Which, in recent years, has earned both "State Park" and "NSW Heritage" status because of its rich biodiversity values, as documented in this community initiated project https://manlydambiodiversityproject.orgIf you've visited the park recently you will have noticed a large swathe of ugly cleared vegetation (see above photos).This previously sensitive intact bushland was where small birds nested in safety, endangered pygmy possums found sanctuary and where wallabies had an unobstructed water source. Now, sadly, the ancient sandstone rocks are being drilled into to create footings for a $1.8 million plastic boardwalk.Some of Australia's top ecologists were involved in documenting wildlife and plants for the above linked to study. All of them recommended that there should be NO more fragmentation of bushland for tracks because of the negative impacts it was having on biodiversity. But it appears that yet again our Council would rather spend money on "infrastructure" than conserving this unique natural oasis. We have many many parks on the Northern Beaches but only one place where the natural bushland was specifically conserved to create Australia's only living war memorial. Imagine how $1.8m could be used to benefit our diminishing threatened species !!As the Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee we try and campaign to protect nature that cannot speak for itself (see Boardwalk Empire video in comments) and for the humans that love this wonderful wild environment. Sorry we failed you this time. Australia, not surprisingly, has the world's worst extinction rate.
The project cost has risen since March 2022 and the closing date for Tenders of December 6, 2022. The Disclosure of Class 1 Contract shows the contract, awarded on January 15 2024 to Rare Environmental Pty Ltd of Brookvale, has an estimated amount payable to the contractor under the contract (excluding GST) of $2,189,394.00. With GST the bill is $2,408,333.10. Provisions for Variations to the amount will be allowed.
If no Variations come in (contractors in other construction formats tell clients to allow around 10% atop quotes for these) the project is costed at $5,561 per metre.
How much the planning, drawings, REF consultant, PR and community consultation has cost so far is atop this. The 2022/23 Council Budget statement included:
- Manly Dam Boardwalk 300,000; NSW Public Spaces Legacy Grant funding for delivery of a boardwalk and connecting trails at Manly Dam
The Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee urged 'We Can Do Better' to the early 2022 community feedback period.
The SMDCC are not alone in noticing the way to water will be blocked to larger mammals by the build. In the feedback to Council wallabies are mentioned by 24 respondents - albeit some of these listing the same in the same way, indicating a form reply had been penned by someone - but all pointing out that:
''As a frequent visitor to the Dam I have noticed several wallabies use the access to the water edge via the small Bay Area which is now proposed to have a ‘viewing platform’. I feel this would impact the access and overwhelm the the small bay. The proposal says it would allow flora and fauna access but I cannot see how the wallabies can negotiate this structure.''
Council's response to this in the Briefing Note on the Engagement Report prepared for the Council Meeting was:
'The boardwalk will not destroy bushland and wildlife habitat. This construction methodology has been chosen over a terrestrial path because of the low impact it will have on the bushland, the hydrology of the slope and allowing movement of flora and fauna under or over it.'
The Concept Design illustrates what Council believes wallabies will be able to 'leap over in a single bound' (?) without one padded paw getting caught:
Proposed viewing deck - Artists rendition/NBC
The aim of this project, as Council's webpage for the project states, is to ''provide a safer connection and improve accessibility between the two picnic areas. This is especially important for more vulnerable groups such as children, older adults and wheelchair users.''
And:
''Once the trail link between Picnic Areas 2 and 3 is completed, we will start investigating options for completing a safe connection from Picnic Area 3 to Picnic Area 4. The exact nature of this connection will be determined through in-depth site analysis and design process but may include a number of different options such as simple wayfinding with no formal path to formal pathways or boardwalks.''
The width of the plastic boardwalk is so prams and wheelchairs going in opposite directions can pass each other.
The Fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP), which will be used despite numerous objections to this material being installed in this environment, has a used-by date of 25 years according to industry sources, indicating Council is signing residents up, alike its plastic sportsfields and playgrounds policy, to fund the replacements for the same every 10-25 years and try and dump the half-life ever after refuse products on overseas countries as disposal depots - also another cost with a half-life of ever after that may come back to these shores with the next incoming tide, ever after.
There are also potential problems with using this product in areas with UV exposure. [1.]
The main benefit of this project is it will keep those who walk here safe from those who speed along the access road rather than sticking to the speed limit, which had been a walkway option for this scheme, and would have necessitated the destruction of much more bushland, understorey, and old growth trees according to Council's responses.
Council anticipates opening the connection in time for the 2024/25 Summer, subject to weather.
Mentioning the weather and the installation of more plastic in the natural environment is not the only deposit the Manly Dam State Park is being impacted by just lately.
In a Pittwater Online report of February 2024, Ancient Fish Habitat Despoiled: Curl Curl Creek Choked With Silt - Runs Into Manly Creek - Manly Dam, Manly Dam, with a reservoir extending into Allambie Heights, was being despoiled by run-off from the new Forest High School site on Allambie Rd, several people had reported extensive amounts of mud in the creek.
On June 23, 2024 the SMDCC reported yet another incidence of run-off of uncontained silt from the construction site:
"LET'S SEE HOW MUCH MUD WE CAN POUR INTO MANLY DAM".You’d think that was the actual brief from the NSW Government. Because no matter how many alarm bells that have been rung, sediment from the new Forest High School build at Allambie Heights keeps on flowing off the site and into Manly Dam's main feeder creek. And it's been doing this since January when we first beseeched urgent action be taken.What has Northern Beaches Council, The EPA, The Dept of Education, the state government and our local political reps been doing about this you might ask ? Good question. Manly Dam has now been closed for recreational use because of the high turbidity and the water has turned a strange yellow colour all the way to the lagoon. We shudder to think of the disastrous effect this has had on some of our rare aquatic species- such as the "Climbing Galaxias".Yesterday we put yet another formal request for action to the EPA.Meanwhile previously untouched bushland has sadly been extensively cleared for a new "Boardwalk" (we pleaded that its aims could achieved without this destruction). It's unfortunate that when much of the world is busy "re-wilding" our Council seems to want to "de-wild" our natural environment.''
The SMDCC photos of that incident:
One of the SMDCC images from the February report illustrates what happens in the creeks and catchment:
Will the Manly Warringah War Memorial State Park and its permanent residents survive these dual 2024 onslaughts?
Is that another fait accompli of a perpetual putting humans before all other species outcome?
SMDCC records and photos from December 2017, when the Manly Vale public school was expanded into McComb Hill, previously wildlife habitat, attribute the deaths of everything that once lived there to their homes being destroyed and wildlife being chased by the noise and destruction onto the adjacent roads.
Council has stated,
''Some felt the area should be left alone and kept natural. Concerns and questions were raised by respondents regarding impact on local wildlife, loss of native vegetation, accessibility, boardwalk materials and width, flood management and ongoing maintenance. These are addressed in the community engagement report.In response to feedback, our plans will include additional offset planting as well as signage with educational messaging along the trail to promote environmental awareness.'
The SMDCC continues to state they would prefer the Council to practice environmental conservation.