In December 2012, the Surfrider Foundation Gold Coast Tweed Branch organised a meeting on Kirra Hill to discuss the need to include a Surf Management Plan as part of the City of Gold Coast’s Ocean Beaches Strategy 2013-2030. This meeting was called in response to a number of issues affecting the surf culture and surf amenity on the Gold Coast.
These issues included:
– The death of a surfer at Currumbin Alley as a result of a collision with a fishing vessel in 2010 and several other near misses.
– Decades of Bring Back Kirra campaigning. Various cruise ship terminal proposals.
– The Palm Beach Shoreline Project.
From that meeting, Dan Ware, Surfrider Foundation Director and Gold Coast Tweed Branch Committee Member, as the lead petitioner, and local councillor/surfer Greg Betts, presented City Council with a petition to proactively address the concerns of overcrowding, increased vessel traffic, dredging, beach nourishment and development. The main thrust of this was to maintain and enhance surfing assets through innovative design of coastal management initiatives. City Council had little choice but to accept this Surf Management Plan’s inclusion into the Ocean Beaches Strategy as City Council’s own research has valued the impact of surfing to the economy at more than $3billion annually. City Council also actively promote the development of the surfing industry and seek to attract surfing tourists to the city. It was decided that the best way forward in order to represent the tens of thousands of recreational surfers on the Gold Coast was to form the Gold Coast Surf Council (GCSC). Surfrider Foundation was strongly represented on the GCSC with Dan Ware elected as Chairperson and Chris Butler as Secretary of that committee.
Surfrider Foundation and the GCSC actively pursued City Council until the Surf Management Plan Advisory Committee (SMPAC) was announced. The first SMPAC meeting was held with City of Gold Coast representatives in September 2014. The Surf Management Plan Advisory Committee is represented by the following 8 stakeholders:
– Surfrider Foundation Gold Coast Tweed Branch Gold Coast Surf Council
– Gold Coast Point Breaks National Surfing Reserves
– Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypass Project
– Surfing Queensland
– World Surf League
– Surf Life Saving Queensland
– The proposed Gold Coast World Surfing Reserve
Surfrider Foundation representatives continue to campaign both within and outside of SMPAC to ensure a number of issues affecting the surf culture and surf amenity on the Gold Coast are recognised and addressed.