History

In 1992 Brad Farmer brought the idea of the Surfrider Foundation to Australia and started a national organisation on the Gold Coast.

Community coastal campaigns were already active at many places around the coastline.

Today the Surfrider Foundation has grown around the world with International Affiliates in Japan, Brazil, Europe, Australia and the United States.

In Australia the Surfrider Foundation currently has over 20 branches around the country.

In 1993 Surfrider Foundation Australia, in conjunction with Greenpeace, staged a series of rallies in Melbourne, Victoria.

The Seige of Look At Me Now (1988 - 1995)
Ocean Outfall - Northern Beaches - Coffs Harbour

The Coffs Harbour City Council and the NSW State Government's plans to construct a ocean sewage outfall on the Northern Beaches near Coffs Harbour New South Wales Australia, were finally laid to rest after twelve years of community opposition.

In 1995 New South Wales State election result confirmed that the conservative National Party Coalition Government would be displaced by a new Labor Government led by Bob Carr.    

Look at Me Now Headland near the village of Emerald Beach was the last of three alternative sites that were favoured options for sewage disposal by ocean outfall.

It was also the site of the most determined push by the Coffs Harbour City Council and the conservative state Government.

The once proposed site was situated about half way up Australia's east coast in a region of subtropical splendour. The primary regional industries are tourism and banana plantations. The area used to be officially promoted at 'The Banana Republic', at that time a rather apt title.
   
The waters along the coastline are part of the Solitary Islands Marine Park. The area is of national importance because of the diversity of marine life due to the overlapping warm northern currents and cool southern currents. It also contains the southern most coral colonies in Australian waters. Due to a lack of river systems these waters are naturally nutrient poor.
   
Surfing and the love of nature are part of a lifestyle adopted by most coastal communities in the mid north coast area, unfortunately there are those, who seek unsustainable development. The population of the Coffs Harbour region is growing. A previous mayor and property speculator, had been publicly quoted as suggesting that a population of 500,000 could be sustained.

So the ocean outfall became the battleground for opposing views.
   
In 1994 Coffs Harbour Aboriginal Land Council commissioned an archaeological and an anthropological study of Look At Me Now Headland at Emerald Beach. One report dealt with the middens and a large stone axe factory at the back of the headland, the other was a study of the spiritual / mythological significance of the headland. The reports formally revealed that the headland and sea caves are of high mythological and ritual significance to the Gumbaingerri People who lodged a heritage claim.

A DEEPER HISTORY

1983 Moonee Beach Headland (pop.300, ten kilometres north of Coffs Harbour), saw the first attempt to construct a treatment works and ocean outfall at the beach. Six months of intensive campaigning and a little luck saw the proposal abandoned.

1985 - 1987 Woolgoolga Headland (pop.3000, twenty kilometres north of Coffs Harbour). After two years of united community resistance the realisation that the opposition was going to be far too strong forced the authorities via a Commission of Inquiry to shift the preferred option to the smaller village of Emerald Beach.

1988 - 1995 Emerald Beach (pop.1000) Fifteen kilometres north of Coffs Harbour.

Look At Me Now Headland was so named because the signal station masters daughter, who lived near the headland, used to receive messages from her fiancee a light house keeper on nearby South Solitary Island.

A NSW state politician, the Coffs Harbour City Council and tame engineers within the Public Works Department were determined that the outfall would go ahead. They spent millions of dollars and in a desperate attempt to win, changed the goal posts every time they looked like losing.
   
In brief this is how organisations like the Surfrider Foundation Australia, the Coalition Against Ocean Outfalls and the Coffs Harbour Environment Centre achieved their aim of preserving the environment and making water conservation a major issue in Australia.

Campaign strategies that worked:

• Organised numerous rally's public meetings, events and rallies.

• Networked getting the backing of numerous public organisations as diverse as the Trades and Labour Council and the Voice of the Elderly

• Elected a charismatic spokesperson as a City Councillor

• The support of sympathetic professionals was enlisted. These voluntary engineers contributed in finding alternative advanced treatment methods and land based reuse solutions to the degrading and wasteful practice of ocean disposal
  
  

• A visual campaign of blockading the first bulldozers sent in by the developers and drawing media scrutiny to the plan

• Achieving an injunction in the Land and Environment Court, lobbying Parliament, the media and national environment groups.

• Continued blockades using experienced forest campaigner's techniques and shared knowledge

• Finally in the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in the protesters favour - the council and the government had breached their own zoning law, which indicated that the headland was reserved for recreation purposes.

• Surfrider Foundation Australia recognised the efforts of the team at Coffs Harbour by honouring the Branch with its 1994 'Branch of the Year Award'.

• Councillor Williams who is also member was presented with the 'Campaigner of the Year' award and a Life Membership.

Surfrider Achievements

Year: 2000

• "The Surfriders Code" poster (surfer's etiquette guidelines) which was redeveloped under the supervision of the projects Director Neil Lazarow was presented at Surfrider Foundation Annual conference in Currumbin, Queensland (March 2000) at the Bi-ennial National Coastal Management Conference in Melbourne (March 2000) and at The Coastal Society conference in Portland, Oregon (July 2000)

• Projects Director Neil Lazarow was guest speaker at the Law of the Surf Conference in Byron Bay (December 2000). Conference organised by Southern Cross University.
  

  Year: 2001
  

• Paper accepted for Coastal Zone 2001 conference in Cleveland Ohio (July 2001) The conference is the most prestigious coastal management conference in the world and generally very hard for non-government organisations to gain entry. The paper is titled "Demystifying Public Participation: The Role of Community Groups in Natural Resource Management"

• Paper accepted for NSW Coastal Conference in Newcastle (November 2001). Annual State coastal management conference. The paper is titled: "The role of the community in decision-making for coastal management in NSW"

• Surfrider Foundation Australia in coalition with the Save Smiths Beach campaign in the south west of Western Australia stopped the development of an inappropriate coastal village and showed that community action web sites are an essential tool in coastal environmental conservation. The term "internet democracy" was coined by Neil Lazarow.
  

• Year: 2002

• Surfrider Foundation Australia - Draft Discussion Paper Future Directions for Surfrider Foundation: Key Issues for Policy Development (August 2002)

• Year: 2003

• Surfrider Foundation Australia in coalition with the Save Ningaloo Reef campaign in North West Western Australia, ensures protection of a significant part of Australia's longest inshore coral reef system. The campaign saw a proposal for an inappropriate coastal development being rejected by Western Australians and the WA State Government.