Yaroomba Declared an Endangered Wave

Posted on January 25, 2019
Yaroomba Beach has been declared an 'Endangered Wave' as part of the Surfrider's Endangered Wave campaign. The visual impacts imposed by the development along with the increased population in the local area are major threats to the wave itself and will have a great impact on local surfers. Yaroomba unfortunately is subject to 4 of the 6 national criteria set by the campaign:
  • Coastal Developments
  • Accessibility and Overcrowding
  • Visual Amenity
  • Ecosystem Threats 

 

Surfrider Foundation Australia's Endangered Waves program aims to highlight the many threats endangering a number of Australia’s most unique and fragile surfing and coastal environments. An ‘endangered wave’ is one where the wave itself is threatened, or the immediate coastal environment and surfing amenity is threatened by one or more of the threats listed within the Endangered Waves Criteria:
  1. Coastal Developments
  2. Accessibility or Overcrowding
  3. Polluted Water
  4. Visual Amenity
  5. Ecosystem Threats
  6. Climate Change
Yaroomba is a small beachfront coastal community around 2 km south of Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast. A long beach leads from Point Arkwright south to the Maroochy River, 15 kms away. A serious of reefs refract swell into several punchy beach break peaks and a grinding right back into the point. An outside set of reefs also produce long lefts on the right day. Being a back beach Yaroomba is a summer saviour being clean in a northerly.
 
Yaroomba is the subject of a massive urban development on land just down from the point, with proposals of a 7 storey (23.5 m) hotel  with an added eight hundred residential units on site. Stage one of the proposal allows for a seven storey beachfront hotel block with the next four stages varying in height from five to seven storey's. The development would double the population of the area in one go. The Japanese developer Sekisui House was knocked back by council in a previous similar development in 2015. Since then following a massive promotion campaign by Sekisui and despite going completely against the 2014 town plan in relation to height and population density and a record of nearly 9300 written objections council has just given approval to the development by a 6 to 5 council vote.
The development will sit directly between scenic Mt Coolum and the ocean, from Pt Arkwright and obviously the surfers view of the undeveloped area will all be impeded. With up to 600 extra car movements an hour and the population density going from 4.4 per hectare to nearly 48 per hectare. The local community is horrified by the development.
With the added worry that, this stretch of beach is one of the last nesting spots on the Sunshine Coast for endangered turtles. The nesting site will be heavily impacted by the lights from the 7 story towers. With record nestings in the last couple of years on this stretch of beach, the fact turtles will not lay with high ambient light leaves significant concerns about the future of the turtle population.
With the highly controversial issue to be soon signed off by the developer several local resident and environment groups are now taking the case to the Planning and Environment Court. With a possible long and expensive court case impending the local groups are united under Sunshine Coast Development Watch banner in the case.
For more information and to take action now head to www.saveyaroomba.com