THE Bomaderry Creek Bushland is a rare and valuable relic of largely undamaged natural ecosystems set in the midst of an urban area. It comprises a spectacularly beautiful forested gorge entrenched into undulating heath/woodlands. Significant potential exists for further development of this magnificent asset as an educational and recreational resource for the local community and a valuable tourist attraction.
The proposed link road from Pitt Street to Narang Road would fragment the bushland. Emphasis on the degraded condition beneath the power line by proponents of that route is a misleading furphy. While some degradation is present, ecological continuity within the park is retained. However, this would be destroyed by a road through the middle of it. The proposed road would not be constructed in the degraded power line easement, but in natural bushland adjacent to it, cutting a broad swathe through the bush, severing ecological connection and access for bushwalkers and cyclists. It would inevitably degrade the creek and gorge, with intrusion of traffic noise destroying its ambience, and rubbish and vehicular pollution despoiling the pristine waterway.
An alternative road link to the Princes Highway lies to the north of the bushland along the existing road easement of West Cambewarra Road, (see Craigie’s Shoalhaven Street Directory). While joining the highway only 400 metres north of the Narang Road roundabout, this route would protect the integrity of the bushland. It would also provide egress for North Nowra residents travelling towards Moss Vale or Sydney, and more direct access to Bomaderry facilities than the Pitt Street-Narang Road route.
However, neither of these potential routes would solve the traffic problems. While easing traffic flows along Illaroo Road in the short term, the problems will merely be transferred from North Nowra to Bomaderry, where the increased traffic load on the highway will have to negotiate a second set of traffic lights and still be faced with the bottleneck at the bridge with traffic entering from Illaroo Road. In the longer term, with increasing housing development in North Nowra, the traffic situation will deteriorate further and a permanent solution to the problem will have to be found.
West Cambewarra Road should be the road link to the highway, but a third bridge crossing of the Shoalhaven is prerequisite for overcoming the traffic problems. This could be situated either immediately upstream of the existing bridges, or to the west along the future western bypass route. However the siting of the third bridge must be seen in the context of future transport planning for Nowra and the Shoalhaven region to the south.
May our rejuvenated council be capable of broader long-term vision with regard to traffic management than the previous myopic fix which would result in environmental vandalism to a significant community asset, without providing a long-term solution to the traffic problems north of the river.
R. Thorne,
Greenwell Point.