REMEMBER WHEN

THE Gold Coast City Council was to write to all coastal authorities in eastern and southern Australia as part of a move to get federal funds for beach erosion works.

And works committee chairman Alderman Trevor Coomber was to push for a federal Cabinet meeting on the Coast so the Hawke Government could see the erosion problems.

The council was keen to set up a school of Coastal Engineering Studies to ensure more work and research was carried out on beach erosion.

The renewed push for increased federal funding was to be made after a meeting between council aldermen and State Government ministers over subsidies for beach replenishment works.

The State Government decided not to increase a

25 per cent subsidy to the council for a $3 million dredging program that was to put about 1.3 million cubic metres of sand back on beaches at Kirra, Palm Beach, Burleigh and Surfers Paradise.

Deputy Premier Bill Gunn, local MPs Russ Hinze, Ivan Gibbs, Rob Borbidge and Doug Jennings and the Maritime Services Minister, John Goleby, met the four-man council delegation.

According to Mr Coomber, the State Government would review its decision not to increase the subsidy after a new-era dredge arrived on the coast within months to carry out massive replenishment.

Mr Coomber said the major expense involved in bringing the dredge to the Coast was in getting it established.

“That is another area where we will pressure governments for funds,” he said.