A large number of Cove locals plus the Residents Association made submissions in response to the exhibition of the draft NSW Oyster Industry Sustainable Aquaculture Strategy late last year. This past week, those who had made submissions received a form letter which responded to the various points raised. A copy of that form letter is attached here: DPI Letter re OISAS.pdf. The Oyster Industry Strategy itself is now firmly fixed and will only be reviewed in the future if certain highly unlikely conditions are triggered.
Collectively, Cove residents' submissions covered topics such as: Water Quality, Economic Viability, Impact of Lease Infrastructure, Consultation, and the Impact on the long-planned Jetty and proposed Launching Ramps. If North Arm Cove residents were in anyway hopeful of a sympathetic response to the points raised in our submissions we were destined to be disappointed. In summary the response received can best be described as No, No, No, No and NO.
It is clear, from both the letter and the wording of the Strategy itself, that the needs of local communities such as ours come a long last when decisions on water use and water access are to be made. Section 1.6 of the Strategy is optimistically entitled Community and Stakeholder Consultation. This is a short section of five paragraphs, the first with five dot points. Other than in the title, the word community does not occur. The nearest we get is the brief final sentence which reads: "The strategy was placed on public exhibit prior to finalisation and gazettal." It seems as though genuine community consultation was not welcome and therefore was summarily dismissed.
My own submission had addressed the issue of Oyster leases directly opposite Casuarina and Water Street Reserves - two of our three small public reserves with access to the Cove. The current Strategy document, like its precedents, includes requirements that a Priority Oyster Lease should be "Not directly offshore from, or 50 m to either side of, an area managed for public recreation" and "Not directly offshore from, or 50 m to either side of any public wharf or public boat ramp. Greater distances may be required in high use areas".
The fact that Casuarina and Water Street are both public reserves appears to have been either overlooked or ignored by Fisheries/Aquaculture in the past. We are informed that this oversight will not be corrected. Although the current management plans for these reserves may only date back around four years they have both been public reserves regularly used by the local community for many decades. Indeed on the Water Burley Griffin plan for the Cove approved by Stroud Shire Council in 1918 we can see the park and proposed Public Jetty. He named it Cove Gate Way. 
When Henry F Halloran took over the Cove development in 1919, although he enormously reduced the amount of Public Reserve land, he kept the Cove Gate Way park and proposed passenger jetty.
Cove Gate Way - known locally as Casuarina Park was extensively used by the Cove community for many years as a public gathering and recreation area and a launching site. Even when, to the dismay of the local community, a cash hungry Council decided to sell off some 60% of the park in 1989, the remaining ~40% was gazetted as public reserve.
There is really no excuse for Fisheries/Aquaculture being unaware that this area (at least) was public reserve when they allocated a priority oyster lease immediately opposite it. In my submission I pointed out that Casuarina and Water Street are Public Reserves and there should not therefore be priority leases opposite them. Unfortunately it appears Fisheries/Aquaculture, contrary to their own policy, prefer to keep both these Cove "gate ways" closed!
