A compromised shore: seachange migration and landscape politics on the Central Coast of New South Wales, 1945–2001
2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14490854.2023.2248183
ISSN1833-4881
Autores Tópico(s)Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration
ResumoAbstractThe second half of the twentieth century saw major coastal landscape changes around Australia driven by seachange migration. This article examines the experience of New South Wales' Central Coast, whose population increased nearly tenfold and was the site of ongoing debates about environmental risk and loss. Over time, a compromise emerged regionally and nationally that allowed continuing coastal migration but with distinct bounds on further development. This article examines how this compromise accompanied the rise of the Australian environmental state, melded with the institutionalisation of the sustainability movement, and can be placed in a broader history of political settlements.Keywords: Seachange migrationcoastal developmentenvironmental historypolitical settlementsCentral Coast of New South Wales (NSW) AcknowledgementThe author would like to thank Nancy Cushing and Roberta Ryan for their support for this research.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 For the purposes of this article, Australia's major cities are considered to be the capital cities.2 NSW Valuer-General Real Estate Market Reports between the 1970s and 1990s suggest that typical residential property values for the Central Coast were comparable throughout the period to Western Sydney localities such as Campbelltown and Penrith. Meanwhile, the price differential between those areas and coastal suburbs such as Mona Vale on the Northern Beaches and Bondi increased substantially.3 Lyndall Ryan, 'Shopping Malls Country: Reading the Central Coast', Journal of Australian Studies 29, no. 86 (2005): 153–60.4 Robert Freestone, Urban Nation: Australia's Planning Heritage (Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing, 2010), 270–71.5 For a general conceptualisation of political settlements in Australia, see Geoffrey Stokes, 'The "Australian Settlement" and Australian Political Thought', Australian Journal of Political Science 39, no. 1 (2004): 5–22, and also Paul Kelly, The End of Certainty (St Leonards NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1992).6 The environmental state is a concept that collectively encapsulates the regulatory, scientific and deliberative institutions created by governments from the mid-twentieth century onwards to manage environmental issues. See Daniel Hausknost and Marit Hammond, 'Beyond the Environmental State: The Political Prospects of a Sustainability Transformation', Environmental Politics 29, no. 1 (2020): 1–16.7 Andrea Wulf, The Invention of Nature (London: John Murray, 2015).8 Daniel May, 'Rethinking The Biggest Estate on Earth: A Critique of Grand Unified Theories', History Australia 20, no. 1 (2023): 154–72; W.K. Hancock, Discovering Monaro: A Study of Man's Impact on His Environment (London: Cambridge University Press, 1972); Stephen Dovers, ed., Australian Environmental History (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994).9 Jarrod Hore, Visions of Nature: How Landscape Photography Shaped Settler Colonialism (Oakland: University of California Press, 2022); Ian Hoskins, Coast (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2013).10 Caroline Ford, Sydney Beaches (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2014), 113.11 Nick Osbaldiston, Towards a Sociology of the Coast (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); Jim Davidson and Peter Spearritt, Holiday Business (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000).12 Robert Freestone and David Nichols, 'Town Planning and Private Enterprise in Early Twentieth Century Australia', History Australia 7, no. 1 (2010): 5.1–24; Christopher Marcinkoski, The City that Never Was (New York: Princeton University Press, 2015).13 Caitlin Buckle and Nick Osbaldiston, 'Counter-Urbanisation in Contemporary Australia: A Review of Current Issues and Events', Australian Geographer 53, no. 4 (2022): 347–62; D. Walmsley, W. Epps and C. Duncan, 'Migration to the New South Wales North Coast 1986–1991: Lifestyle Motivated Counterurbanisation', Geoforum 29, no. 1 (1998): 105–18; M. Sant and P. Simons, 'Counterurbanization and Coastal Development in New South Wales', Geoforum 24, no. 3 (1993): 291–306.14 Walmsley et al., 'Migration to the New South Wales North Coast', 107.15 Ian Burnley and Peter Murphy, Sea Change: Movement from Metropolitan to Arcadian Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2004).16 Sant and Simons, 'Counterurbanization and Coastal Development'; Buckle and Osbaldiston, 'Counter-Urbanisation in Contemporary Australia'; Patrick Mullins, 'Australia's Sunbelt Migration: The Recent Growth of Brisbane and the Moreton Bay Region', Journal of Australian Political Economy no. 5 (1979): 17–32; R. Stimson and J. Minnery, 'Why People Move to the "Sun-Belt": A Case Study of Long-Distance Migration to the Gold Coast, Australia', Urban Studies 35, no. 2 (1998): 193–214.17 Leonie Huntsman, Sand in Our Souls (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001); Douglas Booth, Australian Beach Cultures (London: Routledge, 2001); Philip Drew, The Coast Dwellers (Melbourne: Penguin, 1994); Kay Saunders, 'The Lifesaver as National Icon', in The Australian Legend and Its Discontents, ed. Richard Nile (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2000), 221–233; Hoskins, Coast.18 Osbaldiston, Towards a Sociology of the Coast.19 John Fiske, Bob Hodge and Graeme Turner, Myths of Oz: Reading Australian Popular Culture (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987).20 'Getting Away from All of What?', The Bulletin, 23 January 1971, 33.21 Resource Assessment Commission, Coastal Zone Inquiry – Final Report (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 1993), 50.22 Robert Kay and Chris Lester, 'Benchmarking the Future Direction for Coastal Management in Australia', Coastal Management 25, no. 3 (1997): 273.23 Judith Kildow, 'The Roots and Context of the Coastal Zone Movement', Coastal Management 25, no. 3 (1997): 23. While this article is not a comparative study as such, it is acknowledged that the Australian experience echoed large-scale coastal migration and urban development that occurred elsewhere during this period including parts of North America and Mediterranean Europe, and which also saw debates about landscape changes, along with the emergence of new governance and regulatory responses.24 NSW Coastal Committee, Draft Revised Coast Policy (1994), 7.25 This capture was animated in the mass media by characters such as the mayor (Bob Jelly) in the television series SeaChange (1998–2000), or the father of the title character in the 1994 film Muriel's Wedding.26 Nick Harvey and Brian Caton, Coastal Management in Australia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003); Bryce Thom and Nick Harvey, 'Triggers for Late Twentieth Century Reform of Australian Coastal Management', Australian Geographical Studies 38, no. 3 (2000): 275–90; Osbaldiston, Towards a Sociology of the Coast, 135–38.27 Davidson and Spearritt, Holiday Business, 122.28 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts, The Injured Coastline: Protection of the Coastal Environment (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 1991), xviii.29 That is, the stretch of coast extending between Manly and Palm Beach.30 Peter Rowe, Making a Middle Landscape (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991).31 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 'Census of Population and Housing', various releases available at: https://www.abs.gov.au/census, accessed 6 May 2022.32 Ryan, 'Shopping Malls Country'.33 Rosemary Broomham, Vital Connections (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 2001).34 Ford, Sydney Beaches, 226–53.35 For example, 'Umina Beach' (Advertisement), Sydney Morning Herald, 22 January 1990, 34; 'Absolute Beachfront – 23 Elizabeth Drive Noraville Central Coast NSW' (Advertisement), Sydney Morning Herald – Real Estate, 24 August 1996, 23.36 Central Coast Research Foundation, 'Central Coast Economic Indicators', March Quarter 2001, 8; Wyong Shire Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1994/95', Appendix 1.37 From the late 1940s, the Central Coast was divided into two local government areas: Gosford Shire Council (after 1980, Gosford City Council) and Wyong Shire Council.38 'Protest at Sewage in Sea Plan', Sydney Morning Herald, 17 July 1963, 7.39 N.H. White, 'Pollution Control' (Letter to the Editor), Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1968, 2.40 A. McClure, 'Sewerage Plan at The Entrance' (Letter to the Editor), Sydney Morning Herald, 21 August 1965, 2; A. McClure, 'Outfall of Sewage' (Letter to the Editor), Sydney Morning Herald, 5 March 1968, 2.41 Joan Fenton and Kathryn Pry, Gosford: From Shire to City, 1947–1997 (Gosford: Gosford City Council, 1999), 90, 98–99.42 Anthony Scott, Tuggerah Lakes: Way Back When (Potts Point: Sainty and Associates, 2002), 48.43 See, for example, Wyong Shire Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1995/96', 114, 121–22.44 Peter Forbes, 'Lakes Get a Vacuuming', Sydney Morning Herald, 4 February 1989, 104.45 Wyong Shire Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1994/95', 53; Forbes, 'Lakes Get a Vacuuming', 104.46 Gosford District Environment Foundation, 'Minutes of Meeting', 20 August 1982; Association for Environmental Education NSW – Central Coast Region, 'Newsletter', April 1984.47 Gosford City Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1998', 28; Gosford City Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1999', 38.48 Tony Stephens, 'Drainage a Down-to-Earth Issue in Godzone', Sydney Morning Herald, 27 February 1990, 6.49 Association for Environmental Education NSW – Central Coast Region, 'Newsletter', July 1986.50 John Yeomans, 'A New Plan for the Super Highway', Sun Herald, 24 August 1969, 49.51 Kathryn Pry and Joan Fenton, A History of Wyong Shire 1947–1997 (Wyong: Wyong Shire Council, 1998), 50; see also Garry O'Dell, 'North Entrance Peninsula: The Anatomy of an Issue' (Bachelor of Town Planning thesis, University of New South Wales, 1980).52 NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, 'Wyrrabalong National Park Plan of Management', 2013, 26.53 Barry Cohen, 'The Rainforest Conference' (Speech), Australian Foreign Affairs Record, February 1984, 106.54 National Parks Association of NSW, 'A Proposal for Protection of Remnant Rainforest in the Gosford and Wyong Areas', 1993, 2.55 Commonwealth Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Environment, 'Rumbalara Rainforest Interpretive Centre' (Media Release), 6 July 1987.56 Tim Moore, 'Liberals Pledge Support for Gosford Rainforest Information Centre' (Media Release), 1 September 1987.57 National Parks Association of NSW, 'Proposal for Protection of Remnant Rainforest', 15, 40.58 See, for example on the other side of the Sydney region, Heather Goodall, Georges River Blues: Swamps, Mangroves and Resident Action, 1945–1980 (Canberra: ANU Press, 2022).59 Joseph Glascott, 'Gosford Fight to Save Island from Housing', Sydney Morning Herald, 15 September 1979, 27.60 Fenton and Pry, Gosford: From Shire to City, 127–28.61 Wyong Shire Council, 'Wetlands Study – Environmental Assessment Report', January 1989.62 Bryan Ellis, 'Swamp Remnant' (Letter), Sydney Morning Herald, 5 August 1987, 16.63 Russell Shelley, 'Wetland Alert' (Letter), Sydney Morning Herald, 25 November 1987, 14; Paul Bailey, 'Residents Sue Chemical Plant', Sydney Morning Herald, 28 July 1989, 5.64 Gosford City Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1998', 41–43. The growth of mangroves has been partially attributed to their replacement of saltmarsh in places; see Christopher Harty and Dominic Cheng, 'Ecological Assessment and Strategies for the Management of Mangroves in Brisbane Water—Gosford, New South Wales, Australia', Landscape and Urban Planning 62 (2003): 219–40.65 Cameron Strategies, 'Central Cost Natural Resource and Environmental Management Strategy – Strategic Framework', Report prepared for the Central Coast TCM Steering Committee, December 1998, 30.66 'RSL Move to Build New Resort', Sydney Morning Herald, 25 May 1965, 6.67 'Refusal on RSL Resort', Sydney Morning Herald, 10 June 1965, 9.68 'The Public and the Clubs', Sydney Morning Herald, 13 June 1965, 28.69 'New Beach Resort Rejected by Court', Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June 1982, 13. However, it was reported that following this ruling the developer persuaded the council to approve a further application, which again went to court and was rejected. The developer afterwards speculated that the judge was doing a favour for another judge with a holiday house at the beach. See Jim McClelland, 'Defamation: I Rest My Case', Sydney Morning Herald, 7 July 1988, 15.70 Susan Kurosawa, Coasting (Sydney: Sceptre, 1999), 136–37.71 C.J. Moye, St Huberts Island 1788–2000: An Historical Account (St Huberts Island: St Huberts Island Residents Association, 2000), 34.72 P. Aldred, 'Avoca Beach Destruction' (Letter), Sydney Morning Herald, 22 April 1969, 28.73 'Hundreds Object to Beach Buildings', Sydney Morning Herald, 25 September 1969, 14.74 Gosford District Environment Foundation, 'Minutes of Meeting', 20 August 1982.75 Joe Glascott, 'Nobody Frolics at the Florida Hotel Anymore', Sydney Morning Herald, 25 October 1986, 44.76 Col Allison, 'Woy Woy Had Lost the Plot but Now Has a Saviour to Develop Its Soul', Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 1997, 4–5.77 Lorraine Grunseit, Copacabana: A History 1896–1996 (Copacabana, NSW: Grunseit, 1996), 3.78 See, for example, Chris McConville, 'Dams, Freeways and Aerospace: How Australian Environmentalists Responded to Transnationalism and World Heritage, 1964–1984', Australian Journal of Politics and History 61, no. 3 (2015): 381–96; Peter Burnett, 'Australia's National Approach to "Ecologically Sustainable Development": Success in Principle, Failure in Policy, Still in Prospect' (PhD thesis, Australian National University, 2018); Drew Hutton and Libby Connors, A History of the Australian Environment Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).79 Nicole Gurran, Edward Blakely and Caroline Squires, 'Governance Responses to Rapid Growth in Environmentally Sensitive Areas of Coastal Australia', Coastal Management 35, no. 4 (2007): 445–65; Thom and Harvey, 'Triggers for Late Twentieth Century Reform'.80 NSW Planning and Environment Commission (NSWPEC), Gosford Wyong Structure Plan, 1975, 5.81 Ibid., 19, 60.82 Ibid., 155–58.83 Ibid., 26.84 Ibid., 5.85 Gosford City Council, 'Chief Town Planner's Report – Finance Committee Meeting', 18 September 1984; Gosford City Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1999', 28.86 Gosford District Environment Foundation, 'Minutes of Meeting', 16 July 1982.87 Gosford District Environment Foundation, 'Minutes of Meeting', 5 May 1982.88 Gosford District Environment Foundation, 'Minutes of Meeting', 21 September 1984.89 Gosford District Environment Foundation, 'Annual Report', July 1984.90 Gosford City Council, '1990 Mayoral Report', 3.91 'Can The Entrance Become a Tourist Mecca?', Central Coast Business Review, August 1991, 1–2.92 Gosford City Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1998', 5.93 Gosford City Council, 'Corporate Plan 1997–2002', 7.94 Central Coast Research Foundation, 'Central Coast Economic Indicators', March Quarter 2001, 8.95 Steven Bernstein, The Compromise of Liberal Environmentalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001); Jennifer Allen, Sustainable Utopias: The Art and Politics of Hope in Germany (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022).96 Burnett, 'Australia's National Approach', 85–93.97 Gosford City Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1999', 7.98 This replicated the introduction of similar reporting by the federal government in the mid-1980s, which included national reporting on the coast as one of its analytical categories.99 Gosford City Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1999', 70.100 Ibid., 26.101 Ibid., 29.102 Gosford City Council, 'State of the Environment Report 2000', 78.103 Wyong Shire Council, 'State of the Environment Report 1999–2000', 30–32.104 Ibid., 36–39.105 Ibid., 46.106 NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning (NSWDUAP), Shaping the Central Coast, 1999, 4.107 Ibid., 6.108 Ibid., 7.109 Ibid., 10.110 Ibid., 16.111 Ibid., 10.112 Ibid., 11.113 Ibid., 16.114 Ibid., 16.115 Stephen Chavura and Ian Tregenza, 'The "Secular" Settlement and Australian Political Thought', Australian Journal of Political Science 54, no. 2 (2019): 272–87; Judith Brett, 'The Country, the City and the State in the Australian Settlement', Australian Journal of Political Science 42, no. 1 (2007): 1–17; Stokes, 'The "Australian Settlement"'. Conversely, it has been suggested that Alfred Deakin rejected advocacy in the early twentieth century for the Commonwealth to take on national environmental protection responsibilities at the same time it established compromises around industrial relations. See Hutton and Connors, A History of the Australian Environment Movement, 243.116 Recent histories of Queensland's Gold Coast, for example, highlight both the general institutionalisation of sustainability alongside local difference in the acceptance and rejection of certain built environment outcomes. See Paul Burton, 'The Changing Face of Local Government on the Gold Coast', 109–120, and Jason Byrne and Donna Houston, 'All that Glitters: An Environmental "Sketch" of Gold Coast City', in Off the Plan: The Urbanisation of the Gold Coast, ed. C. Bosman, A. Dedekorkut-Howes and A. Leach (Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, 2016), 17–30; Gurran et al., 'Governance Responses to Rapid Growth'.117 Hutton and Connors, A History of the Australian Environment Movement, 241–61; Burnett, 'Australia's National Approach'.118 Allen, Sustainable Utopias.119 Buckle and Osbaldiston, 'Counter-Urbanisation in Contemporary Australia'.Additional informationNotes on contributorsChris BeerChris Beer's research has spanned many aspects of urban planning, development and history. He has previously completed doctoral studies in political science at the Australian National University and held adjunct positions at the University of Canberra and Macquarie University.
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