Beauty Point is a secluded area of Mosman that fronts onto Middle Harbour, and is fringed with a significant length of near natural Sydney Harbour shoreline. This area of Middle Harbour, along with the coastal bushland and walking track provide important areas for recreation, sight seeing and natural habitat The sheltered waters of Pearl Bay are an important marine habitat and provide a nursery ground for many fish species and stingrays. The Bay also supports extensive stands of seagrasses and oysters.
The bushland reserve is significant because it encompasses a range of habitats and aspects as it fringes the changing profile of the Bay. The Reserve also contains important evidence of Aboriginal occupation of the area, including shell middens. Despite the beauty of the area, polluted stormwater is harming the coastal bushland and the local marine ecosystem. It is also reducing the recreational and aesthetic value of the area.
A Mosman Council CEC project that has gained additional grant funding from the NSW Government, is helping to remediate the area and maintain its environmental values. Following the success of the projects at Taylors Bay and Lawry Plunkett Reserve, this project is adopting a multi disciplinary approach, combining onground works with a catchment education campaign.
A community education campaign will involve local residents and users of bushland and waterways. It will explain the causes of stormwater pollution, its effect on local catchments and waterways, and how to prevent such pollution.
On ground works involve a reduction in the number of stormwater pipes draining from the catchment into the bushland and receiving waters. Small Stormwater Quality Improvement Devices (SQIDs) will also be installed to trap gross pollutants, including leaves and litter, and sediments. Wherever necessary along bush tracks and in problem areas, environmentally sensitive erosion controls will also be installed.
Flow paths are also being formalised. Degraded creeks will be rehabilitated and restored to prevent further stream erosion and promote the natural capture and degradation of stormwater pollutants not removed by SQIDs. Recently commenced, this project should be completed by the end of 2003.
Through managing stormwater in the catchment, the project will improve marine habitat both in the Bay and in the intertidal zone. By reducing the degradation of coastal bushland and creeks the project will improve opportunities for foreshore reliant species, and extend the habitat of vulnerable species, such as the threatened red-crowned toadlet. Importantly, the project will also improve the awareness of the values of this special part of Mosman and Middle Harbour.
