Green meanies denied as Aquaman filming rights confirmed

AQUAMAN has won the day, defeating a bid by greenies to stop the Hollywood blockbuster being filmed on the Tweed Coast.

Studio giant Warner Bros gained approval to film part of the $160 million Aquaman production, starring Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe and Nicole Kidman, at picturesque Hastings Point on the Tweed Coast starting next week.

But the Tweed’s Greens Mayor, Katie Milne, yesterday called an extraordinary meeting of the Tweed Coast Reserve Trust, which manages Hastings Point headland, to try to overturn the approval.

A tearful Cr Milne told the meeting the council should not be “blinded by Hollywood” and had a responsibility to safeguard the environmentally- sensitive Hastings Point headland which was “unequalled anywhere on the east coast”.

She said there was angst about the environmental impacts and a lack of consul- tation, and worry about the community being unable to access the headland for two months during set building and filming.

“We have one of the most beautiful shires in the whole of Australia but that is because our community has fought fiercely to protect it ... otherwise we’d be the Gold Coast,” she said. “Every time there’s a job up for grabs, we put our environment last on the list and we can’t just keep doing that.”

However, she was the only one to vote against the filming permit, with councillors having voted 5-1 to approve it.

Aquaman location manager Duncan Jones told the meeting the production would bring “economic benefits” and “bragging rights” to the Tweed.