REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday, May 6, 2004

FISHERMEN and divers were fuming after tonnes of sand were dumped near two Palm Beach reefs during Gold Coast City Council dredging.

Locals feared it would take years for fish to return to the reefs, which had been popular with divers and anglers for decades.

Area councillor Daphne McDonald said the dumping was careful to skirt an exclusion zone around the reefs.

But Rodney and Fred Hall were unconvinced.

The father and son had been fishing off Palm Beach for 20 years and said they had never seen so much sand on the reefs.

“It’s stupid,’’ said Rodney Hall.

“There is a beautiful reef here and it is disappearing.

“They say they are dumping a fair way away but the silt and sand comes up on the currents so the reef is nearly half-gone.’’

Paul Williams said the dumping in that location defied belief.

“If this was a private company responsible, they would be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars,’’ he said.

Mr Williams said a baitfish reef had been completely covered and part of an outer reef was also being covered with sand.

The dumping at Palm Beach’s natural reefs came as divers and anglers mourned the burial of two reefs off Kirra’s world-famous headland.

Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey weighed into the debate, calling the dumping ’environmental sabotage’.

Local fisherman Darryl Smith agreed.

“They haven’t got a clue what they are doing,’’ he said.