The grandson of Albert “Ernie” Carr, whose family formerly owned five farms around the Carrs Drive area at West Yamba, has expressed concern that areas he knew as swampland when growing up are being overdeveloped.
The local man, who asked not to be named, said when the huge 1950 flood hit, he recalled being just five years old, and paddling around in a flat bottom punt from his grandfather’s property near Sullivans Road, across flooded swampland around Carrs Drive and along flooded Yamba Road.
“We rowed from out at grandpas place at Sullivans Road all around where they plan to construct Miles Street when I was five in an old flat-bottomed punt, out to Yamba Road in the 1950 flood,” he said.
The 78-year-old former Golding Street resident said many parts of the West Yamba Urban Release Area WYURA around Carrs Drive and Golding Street were once swampland, that often didn’t dry out after heavy rain or floods for several years.
He said the area is a natural drainage basin with a number of small water courses and in times of king high tides or high full moon tides, these water courses fill with river water which is pushed along by prevailing winds.
“That whole area is flood prone, right throughout the whole area around Carrs Drive out to Yamba Road is a flood plain,” he said.
“A lot of the land there is soft, swampy ground, with no solid base for the large construction that is planned in the area.
“They can’t fill the whole lot in, can they?
“If they do fill it all in then the water is only going to affect other people around the area.
“If they build on that sort of ground, what’s the future hold?”
He said future construction planned for the Carrs Drive area including the second stage of the Clifton development and the 284-lot proposed Kahuna subdivision needed to be carefully considered by authorities before approval is granted.
The man said he is also concerned about a proposal for 16 townhouses on Golding Street, which he has regularly seen flood over the years.
The DA2023/0776 for the proposed Golding Street development is on public exhibition until 4pm on March 25, and submissions from the public are invited.
To make a submission visit https://www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/Building-and-planning/Advertised-DAs/DA20230776-30-Golding-Street-Yamba.
This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 13 March 2024.
