2022-11-14 GC Agenda - Item 3 - Attachment 1 - Draft Eastern Beaches Foreshore Management Plan

11. Encroachments
Encroachments into foreshore reserves include damaging vegetation, filling, dumping rubbish, yard
extensions, private infrastructure and unauthorised planting. As the impact and area of
encroachments continues to expand in the EBFRs, their ability to contribute to nature-based
community climate change resilience under the Noosa Coastal Hazard Adaptation Plan 2021 and
improve coastal ecosystems under the Noosa Environment Strategy 2019 is compromised.


Education and communication
Ongoing communication between Council, visitors and neighbours can contribute to the protection
and enhancement of the EBFRs. Education and communication will be the first option in dealing
with neighbour impacts. There are many positive examples for others to follow where bushland
neighbours have created improvements for bushland vegetation, native wildlife and natural amenity
through their custodialship of the environment and volunteer bushcare efforts. Council wishes to
celebrate these success stories and provide ongoing support.


Local Law No.4
Activities in Council managed reserves relating to encroachments are regulated under Local Law
No.4 (Local Government Controlled Areas, Facilities, & Roads) 2015. But how these impacts are
dealt with by Council can be subjective or inconsistent, which can make it difficult for Council
officers to respond to them.

A number of community groups have expressed frustration about the lack of Council action in
relation to incursions in the bushland reserve. They are calling on Council to take a “proactive, zero
tolerance approach to illegal appropriation of public land, degradation of public land through
removal of native vegetation, the unauthorised planting on public land, and the dumping of rubbish
or landfill on public land”. They wish to see immediate action to seek rectification of
encroachments, irrespective of past practices, and take a firm stand on this issue.

This requires a consistent, transparent and well-resourced whole of Council response to
encroachments that better meets community expectations and protects the social and
environmental values of the EBFRs. This includes education and communication as a first option, a
range of non-regulatory responses, and a clear and methodical regulatory response.


Encroachment descriptions
Private beach accesses on public reserve land
Making or using private, informal, beach accesses clears native vegetation, causes erosion and
spreads weeds. They create weak spots for severe weather impacts and opens the foreshore to
increased salt, wind and storm damage. Over 90% of the neighbours sharing a boundary with the
EBFRs have a private beach access in public land.

Paths that cross the width of the foreshore reserve fragment the bush. Each one of these path
edges has accompanying ‘edge-effect- area, a strip of degraded bush, which usually has more
weeds and more sunlight, wind and salt intrusion, degrading the health and diversity of the
ecosystems. Having many more paths crossing the foreshore means that much more of the
retained bush is this degraded edge effect area, with reduced environmental values and increased
management costs.

Paths, especially in quieter areas, allow introduced predators to freely move across more of the
dune and beaches. This appears to particularly apply to foxes accessing the quieter, darker parts
of the beach that turtles are likely to use for nesting.

Eastern Beaches Foreshore Management Plan – Draft (V4 26.9.22 – for public consultation)      Page 26