The following attachment has been sent to BReak O’Day Council and a response was received from the General Manager John Brown. My letter was received with good will and we will have to wait to see what the consultants come up with (Era Advisory) in due course. I will have more to say on the housing crisis in a followup. To cap it off though we have to think more about projects that require a longer term committment. 

Friday, July 18, 2025
Topic: Scamander – Beaumaris Structure Plan

Break O’Day Council has asked for our vision on how we want Scamander –Beaumaris to develop
in the future. I have taken the time to reflect on what I would like to see happen in our community
and hope this will be treated more seriously than other Community meetings where similar
thoughts were canvassed by Council. The amount of action achieved from these earlier
consultations would seem to me to be minimal.
My suggestions are not in any particular order.

Community access to the area :
Several areas namely the river, the beaches and the mountains behind all are beautiful and all in
some ways lack access by the public. It is important that we all have recreational areas which are
not only picturesque but are accessible by the public. In particular there are few scenic walkways
and bicycle corridors outside of Winifred Curtis reserve. ( I understand that Winifred Curtis may
now also be bike riding unfriendly. )
I have long called on the need for a coastal corridor walkway/ bicycle path to go behind our
beaches. Eventually such a path could be extended into a longer distance pathway connecting St.
Helens to Bicheno. There are lots of options in the routing of this path but in principle the main
objective is that visitors should be able to see the stunning views of the beach.
The Old Coach road (which goes through Winifred Curtis reserve) built by the early pioneers to
move stock and persons from Falmouth to St. Helens is of historic interest and is so located that it
would satisfy the criteria mentioned above. A walking access bridge at Falmouth would enable
more ready access to all aged groups and cyclists
Another pathway that I have repeatedly suggested connects Scamander bridge to Upper
Scamander Road following the southern side of the river. This coastal reserve skirts the southern
side of lhe Scamander river all the way from the river’s outlet , past the children’s playground and
in frontof the Green Point development. It is controlled by Parks and Wildlife who seem reluctant
to take up any initiatives made to them. In many cases unobserved developments encroach on
these pristine corridors ruining them forever.. Tracks do a great job of giving back to the public
control of their environment.
Certainly riding a bike along the Tasman Highway is unsafe. A lot of attention has been given to
Mountain bike trails but in the meantime touring Tasmania by bicycle is no longer safe. Road
improvements especially seem to have forgotten the cyclist. My suggestion is the Coach Road
which leaves the Tasman Highway at the Shell Garage goes past the Sports Complex and the
Scamander tip eventually reaching the Basin Creek Road by upgraded primarily as a bypass
bicycle trail. Offshoots also go to Beaumaris. Sidetrips can also go to Skyline Road and Lookout
These roads are all in the Scamander Forest reserve and no roads in our community are at present
declared bike friendly roads by Google maps.

Sports Complex:
 The assets of the Sports Complex were given to the Council some years ago gratis and really
Council have done little to support it since. It is time that a complete assessment of the Sports
Complex was carried out and necessary improvements made so that all of Scamander felt it to
be a essential part of their community. The complex at present is under utilize by the youth of
our community as simply said it doesn’t really cater for them.
 Changes that should be made:
1. A purpose built building for inside sports activities such as basketball, volley ball , fitness
centre, games room , change rooms and teaching rooms. At present there is only one main
building which has the bar and restaurant but really does little to cater for sports activities.
There is a particular need for sports activities to be available all year round and for existing
outdoor activities to have access to change rooms and toilets. Younger people particularly
have no place to go in Scamander for recreational sports. To imply that there is plenty of
facilities in St. Helens where they can go is unreasonable as there is no public transport and
the regular likelihood of that happening if transport is available diminishes with distance.
2. Other issues: The tennis courts need to be upgraded and lights installed. The oval needs to be
fenced and irrigation installed. Some setting too for spectators installed.

Barway:
A lot of time has been spent on rectifying the barway with nothing actually done. Land is for sale
in the northern end of Dune Street in a area likely to be adversely affected by river mouth changes.
In my opinion this land is unsafe for development and should be incorporated into reserve land
and for uses already mentioned. The historical evidence that the escape root to Henderson Lagoon
for rising waters in the Scamander river may have been lost in recent discussions. The break wall
blocked this ancient and enduring escape root which allowed water to escape into Henderson
Lagoon and also to provide essential environmental flows to protect the lagoon.. The feature of
this escape route is that it wasn’t blocked by rising sand dunes when the Scamander river stopped
flowing and the mouth blocked. If we don’t recognize this scenario then Council will continue to
pay for the mouth to be opened periodically. But one day we may mess up and not open it in time
and flooding of low areas would result. As it stands now it the exit to the “River mouth left to its
own devices is moving south as the escape route into Henderson lagoon has been blocked by the
rock wall. Eventually it will find its way back to Henderson Lagoon as the summer sands
repeatedly block the seaway exit.

Tip Shop and Scamander Tip:
The Scamander tip is due for significant upgrades in the future. Dealing with waste in the Break
O’Day community is an expensive exercise with general waste being freighted to Copping in the
far south and recycled waste to Launceston. General waste is compacted before dispatch thereby
increasing the bulk density. General waste however contains food waste and hence is bio
degradable. If sent to Copping these wastes can generate methane gases which vent to the
atmosphere. This is an area that is being addressed by many Councils with the result that it is
removed from General Waste and composted locally. Governments are encouraging this by
increasing handling charges exponentially in the future for these wastes. Recycle waste is also
undergoing reassessment as Recycle Rewards is activated. Although not working particularly well
in Rural Areas as collection points are limited. Under this scheme certain bottles glass , aluminum
and steel are deposit returnable.
This brief picture gives you a glimpse as to why things are changing at our tips. Collection is
increasingly being delineated into components. One of those components is the making of
composts which in future will contain the FOGO (waste food components) . I suspect this will
probably be done at both St. Helens and Scamander with other collection sites transporting their
waste to one of these sites.
In addition to some of these changes recycling has proven to be of great benefit. Launceston tip
shop is a great revenue earner for its recycling activities. St. Helens has also shown what can be
done.
Scamander has a sort of tip shop. Here they have a small shed where goods can be left.
Unfortunately it is really in a bad position and not adequately set up to do the job right. It is my
understanding that the Scamander tip will be reorganized to handle all of the above activities and
as part of this reorganization to install a purpose built tip shop. The tip shop needs to have the
following:
1. Full services including water hot and cold, toilets , parking area, power ,wifi
2. A repair room and/or check out area including cleaning.
3. Layout area weather protected for paints, building materials.,white goods etc
4. Opening hours need to be extended similar to St. Helens
5. A men’s shed might be attached here or otherwise at the Sports Complex. The mens shed
could help with repair of items donated.
6. The Scamander tip shop would operate independently to St. Helens and moneys raised
spent on the local community.
7. Ready Rewards is now operating but with only one receiving point in St. Helens. It has
already be noted that it does significantly reduce the Recycle waste component going to
Launceston. However it suffers from a number of shortcomings. These are that it is only in
St. Helens and therefore had to get all the municipality to support it. Tip shops may be the
answer as collection points and should be canvassed to assess how this might work.

Bushfire Protection:
In 2006 Scamander and surrounds was faced with a bushfire which destroyed 28 homes. During
the fire the town water supply was ruptured and power disconnected. Maybe rural and coastal
townships should pay more adherence to what we can do to protect ourselves in the future. Coastal
townships including St. Helens, Beaumaris, Binalong Bay and Scamander are all surrounded by
dry sclerophyll forests which are highly flammable in summer conditions.
Scamander fortunately has the Scamander river which was used by helicopters in this and more
recent fires. Beaumaris only has the ocean.
Maybe we should address what sort of protection we could envisage for the future. It would seem
to me that accessing salt water for emergency fire fighting is a possibility. In Scamander we can
take Saltwater from both sides of the river or Wrinklers lagoon. In Beaumaris we can take it from
the ocean or from Reedy Creek. There is a privately owned catchment on this creek which could
be used and other catchments exist in this area. With this water supply my suggestion is to set up
laterals behind the town which wet down a strip of low fuel levels. These towns are all marked for
growth and bush fire corridors protection in contrast to house fires hasn’t come up with a lot of
consideration.

The Housing Crisis:
Every day we now hear about the housing crisis. Under the National Housing Accorfd “The
Australian government has launched a plan to construct 1.2 million new homes over five years,
including social and affordable housing.” Of course governments already recognise that this is not
going to be achievable. An naturally no one is looking at what else we can do other than to build
houses in a conventional regulated environment. In this environment this so-call low cost housing
often leads to an environment where the incoming family are tenants and the housing is controlled
and maintained by the State. These so-called low costs solutions often don’t lead to good
conclusions and with continual costs accruing to the Government make them financially
unattractive.
I quote you from Allen Kohler quarterly essay on Housing:” Over the past four years, our three
children and their partners all bought their own first houses. They’re doing it later than we did,
and much later than my parents, so they’re making better money, and both partners are working,
of course, but they paid about 7.5 times each income for their houses” There’s lot more info in his
essay but essentially it points out that housing has grown much more than income and hence
owning a house has become unaffordable for many people.
Here in Break O’Day we have an opportunity to participate in what will be a housing tsunami but
with a difference. Land prices to start with are much lower than the more densely populated urban
areas. We need young people in the area to service our aging population , tourism and other
industries. We find young people are keen to come to this community for the “sea change ‘ benefit
we enjoy.
But we have hurdles. This Council is not used to taking such leap frog new directions. We need
our council to embrace a action plan which can put housing schemes in motion. A planning
department that promotes owner builders, that runs the necessary TAFE courses, that facilitates
this type of land development. Twice I have mentioned owner builder and it is only by this route
that building costs can be substantially reduced. It is an excellent way too of getting people into a
functional activity, meaningful work whilst they explore future job opportunities. The low cost
housing won’t be substandard in any way. I have explained this concept before
https://eurekafarm.com.au/housing-crisis’ to Council where it was unanimously accepted.
However there were hurdles which we couldn’t overcome then.
The financing and other items are explained in my article. Costing has changed but the concept
remains the same.
The potential owner builder gets himself a home at the end of completion. The assistance provided
is paid back when ownership is transferred with no ongoing costs to the BOD.

Shade trees Scamander avenue and possibly river park land:
Corymbia ficifolia has long been used as a scenic tree for Scamander Avenue. I think it should be
identified as the tree to be identified with Scamander. It might also be used in the park lands either
side of the bridge. The playground is certainly shade deficient and something needs to be done.
On another issue gorse exists in the coastal land between Winifred Curtis Reserve and Falmouth
which should be removed.

Scamander River:
Other than mentioning access to the river for walks there is another point that should be made.
This river is what identifies the township of Scamander and it is underutilized. The stretch above
the bridge could be used for water sports and in particular rowing regattas. It is a straight stretch of
sufficiently deep water and not particularly fast flowing normally. Hence my suggestion that it be
used for this sport. Kayaking in the upper reaches could also be further promoted.
Scamander River is also popular for fishing especially in the summer months. Sometimes the
fishing rewards can be sparse leading me to suspect that over fishing has occurred. The
sustainability of the fish life should be monitored and if necessary closed down if fish stocking
grows low.
I have outlined my thoughts through this document as it is often difficult to go into details at
public meetings. You probably don’t want detailed suggestion but to my way of thinking
suggestions without details are meaningless and will be quickly lost to future considerartions.
Regards Denis Buchanan
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