More than 100 submissions have been made to Bega Valley Shire Council opposing a proposed development in Nutleys Creek Road in Bermagui. Photo: Bega Valley Shire Council website.
Two groups of Bermagui residents have expressed their concerns about a proposed over-60s gated development to Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland.
The development application (DA) for the $26.5 million development of 162 dwellings in Nutleys Creek Road was lodged with Bega Valley Shire Council in November 2023. It is once again on public exhibition with submissions due to close on 14 January.
The residents’ concerns centre on safety, namely, having so many elderly people living two kilometres from the town centre in an area surrounded by forest with only one road in and out.
“The RFS and SES have enough on their plate,” one woman said. “Evacuation doesn’t appear to have been properly considered.”
“It is a duty of care for these additional 162 elderly couples in this small fishing village with only one doctor,” another woman said. “The hospitals are an hour away so there is a legal duty of care.”
Another woman was concerned about the loss of habitat because there are yellow-bellied gliders on the site and it is koala habitat.
There were also concerns about how the town’s infrastructure would cope given other substantial developments in nearby Parbery Avenue and Ocean View Drive, as well as the development’s density, and its land lease model.
“It is good to be addressing the housing shortage, but that doesn’t seem to be a very good solution,” one woman said.
Bega Valley Shire Councillor Helen O’Neil who was sitting in on Dr Holland’s mobile office in Bermagui on Thursday 19 December, said the DA would come before councillors next year, rather than be determined by a planning officer, because there had been more than 100 objections.
She said the DA was also being studied by numerous government agencies around issues such as biodiversity.
Member for Eden Monaro Kristy McBain has visited the site at the request of Bermagui Matters, a group of residents who are opposed to the development.
State member for Bega Dr Michael Holland held a mobile office in Bermagui on Thursday 19 December. Photo: Dr Holland’s office.
One man spoke to Dr Holland about potential solutions to the housing crisis, such as building smaller and cheaper houses like the terraces that were built in the past.
“People should be able to easily change the layout of their property, like knock down a large house to build two modest ones,” he said. “That would reduce isolation for people living in a big house by themselves or having to move away.”
Dr Holland said that a woman in Malua Bay had suggested tax breaks as an incentive for people to downsize. He said something similar could be offered to owners of holiday homes that were vacant for years at a time.
Another woman in Bermagui spoke to Dr Holland about the long-delayed Sapphire Cove development.
“People paid deposits but there was no certification to develop the land,” she said. “People had sold their houses and are now having to rent.”
An elderly woman’s plans to build a modest home, mortgage-free, on a seven-acre block have been shattered after some six years of delays and numerous fees in relation to the DA. When she cleared the land she found that the septic tank would be in a gully. The council told her she would have to move it 10 metres and submit a new DA.
“Because of all these delays and extra charges and the inflation in the meantime, now I am being forced into a financial situation I shouldn’t be in,” she said. Her friend said the woman’s capacity to work was getting shorter, not longer.
Dr Holland will be visiting Wallaga Lake Road in the new year after a couple spoke to him about the “impractical” repairs and roadworks that had been done in recent years. They would also like to see a shared pathway between Tilba Road and Wallaga Lake Heights for bicycles and prams.
Another man spoke to Dr Holland about the poor state of banking. “Banks are shutting branches and charging me money to take money out of an ATM or over the counter,” he said. “People are getting scammed and banks are stepping back.”
He said banks compared unfavourably with another essential service, post offices. “Post offices are accessible and they are trusted.”
The man said the problem stemmed from when the Commonwealth Bank of Australia was privatised. Since then, banks had focused on making profits for shareholders, to the detriment of their customers.
“The Australian Government could implement a new bank within a couple of years and put national interest as its bottom line,” he said.
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