Ed,

I would make the following points:

• Yamba, ‘Mouth’ of the Clearance, needs urgent dredging as in the late 60’s and now recognised on the Tweed and has been addressed. Also, Romiaka, Shallow Bay, Oyster Channel, Lake Wooloweyah and upriver to Grafton on the Clarence needs to be dredged. This inaction of dredging at the mouth of the Clarence just encourages water backup in major flood times as well as effecting the river fishing industry by ocean inflow/outflow.
• Save the koala’s program needs urgent National Park’s roads clearing by RFS to enable early cut-offs of bush fires. If this happened prior to the last major fire in Yuraygir and Bundjalung National Parks, we would have saved RFS volunteer lives and wildlife including 10,000 koalas. National Parks need urgent funding to make this happen. Believe me, these fires will most probably happen again.
• The ‘Stop the Fill’ campaign needs to be redirected to the problems associated with the above.
• The whole East Coast of NSW needs fill and of course dredging is the best option. CVC and others addressing the needs of Housing on Flood plains in desirable areas like Yamba etc, have no option but to cart the fill.
• The whole Clarence Valley needs to address major housing shortage for employment opportunities as was done to places like Crystal Waters, which was a totally dredged area, in Yamba years ago.

These above points are made by one of the oldest Indian resident families in the Clarence since 1885.

Rex Tory, Yamba