OUR OWN PRESS RELEASE
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
Our fund-raising dinner was a great success and resulted in an addition of $5,000 towards our "Feasibility Study" fund. It was an opportunity for Professor Bruce Thom to meet with Dr. Shaw Mead, one of the world leaders in the work of actually protecting beaches. Both these scientists are concerned with protection of our environment. Professor Thom is a member of the newly appointed Coastal Panel of NSW which will provide advice to the minister and local councils on matters relating to the coast.Professor Thom was delighted to have been invited to Old Bar as it will be one of the beaches which will be closely looked at by the Coastal Panel. He delivered the first speech and showed how our coastline has been affected since 1940 and said that he is looking for reasons why our beach has been so badly affected in the last 10 years. One of his comments was that different coastal communities are approaching the problem in different fashions and he felt that we were using a sensible approach and should continue along this line. Professor Thom's popularity with the gathered crowd was shown at the end of the night by the applause when he and his wife Irene won the very beautiful raffle of a limited edition screen print "Frangipani and Beach Stones (Old Bar)", done by our now deceased local artist David Rose.
He will surely endear himself further with our community, for, when he was later advised of the prize he and Irene discussed it and said they felt that this was a local treasure and should remain in Old Bar and they donated it to the school. The extreme effort applied by Eric Trad in organising this fund raising dinner was well rewarded as the night went smoothly on, an excellent dinner being served between the auctioning of music and sporting memorabilia when Eric showed his ability of not only amusing the crowd but extracting every last cent for the items on auction - but - quite a lot of good and valuable purchases were made on the night for which the new owners will be rewarded with a nice increase in value.
Shaw Mead came to us from Wooli where at 3.00 pm he addressed a large gathering of people including Catherine Cusack, shadow minister for the environment, local politicians and dignitaries and the community on their problem of being faced with Planned Retreat. His address to our gathering was extremely interesting showing the methods employed in their work, the many locations around the world where reefs are installed and the success of those reefs, and he himself being a surfer made a special point of showing for Ben Dunn quite a few good surfs which have been achieved with the off-shore reefs.
Then came the most important event of the night - the awarding of trophies to our young achievers, and it is amazing how many great sports people are from Old Bar. Alex and Damian Cudlin (motor cycles), Ben Dunn (surfing), Ben Harris (Rugby League), Lee Kavanagh (Kite surfing), and Holli Wheeler (Hockey). Eric has arranged for this to be an annual event having sourced funding for the next three years and what a great thing it is for the local community to acknowledge the success of its achievers.
It was pleasing to see Federal Member for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott, Mayor Paul Hogan and wife Patti and councillor Alan Tickle present. Also with us were candidates for the state election Steve Bromhead and Steve Attkins, each showing their interest in our efforts to protect and replenish our beach.
Last but by no means least was the effort put in by local musicians "Struk" to provide music throughout the night. The appreciation of those present was shown by their determination that the boys give an encore before closing.
The dinner over we proceeded to the most exciting event of the weekend - the placing of the "aquadopp" by Shaw Mead. The beginning of the culmination of our efforts. Here again we had total community involvement - The Surf Lifesaving Club were standing by with their "rubber duckie" in case they were needed, but it was impossible for them to transport the ballast so Andrew Gillogly, a local resident and fisherman, came to the rescue with his "Tin Pig" - and what a help he was taking out all the ballast and large aluminium frame and the very important instrument which 4 days ago was in India.
Shaw proceeded to the beach in front of the Meridian where again he and Bruce Thom met up and were able to discuss the beach there on location. Shaw then swam out and met the "Tin Pig" the instrument was placed and Andrew will check it every now and again when he is out in the boat. Shaw and one of his offsiders will return in 4-5 weeks, recover the instrument, and take the data back to commence our study. Shaw then flew back to New Zealand only to leave New Zealand today for California. A rather busy man.
I would like to take this opportunity of thanking so many people who have now become involved in our work - things like suitable accommodation for the scientists where they can prepare their instruments, the crew who prepared the beautiful tables for our dinner and so many others. This is a great example of a community working together.
Elaine Pearce
President, Old Bar Beach Sand Replenishment Group Inc.
