Council voted 8 to 7 to accept six coastal lots at Wamberal and Avoca as operational land. On 27 October it was asked to undo that

The land

The Coastal Lands Protection Scheme began in 1973. The officers’ report to the 22 September meeting describes it as a way to bring significant coastal land into public ownership, preserve scenic coastline, protect ecological sites and improve public access. On 3 July 2026 the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure wrote asking whether Council would take six lots the scheme had bought. The department told officers it is contacting councils across NSW about other scheme land, and the transfer would be at no cost to Council, although Council may still pay for its own legal, valuation and other checks.

The five Wamberal lots, at 71, 25 and 25A Ocean View Drive, are zoned public recreation. The certified Open Coast Coastal Management Program already asks Council to get them, in action WB02-E: Pursue the transfer of NSW Government owned lots at Ocean View Drive Wamberal into Council ownership. The report says erosion in recent years has brought the beach to less than 30 metres from Ocean View Drive near some of them.

The sixth lot, 7 Carnegie Drive, Avoca Beach, is zoned environmental conservation and is the one piece of the seven-lot Winney Bay Reserve that Council does not already own or manage. It also has a house on it, leased to a private tenant under an arrangement the department’s Office of Strategic Lands manages.

Why the classification matters

Under the Local Government Act, a council’s public land is either community or operational. The difference that counts here is in section 45: A council has no power to sell, exchange or otherwise dispose of community land. Community land must also have a plan of management. The Act sets neither requirement for operational land. A council may classify land it acquires before the acquisition or within three months after; if it does not, the land is taken to be community land.

The officers recommended operational. Their report said it would give Council the flexibility required to effectively manage the land for coastal management, access, environmental protection and future works, pointing to the continuing work at Wamberal and the uncertainty about the Avoca house, and said Council could reclassify all or part of the land as community land once its uses were settled. The recommendation also asked Council to note that the lots would stay in its ownership predominantly for public access, coastal management and environmental protection. The report also recorded that the department had initially advised that the parcels would need to be maintained for public access.

How the 22 September vote went

Cr Doug Eaton moved the officers’ recommendation and Cr John McNamara seconded it. Three amendments followed. Cr Corinne Lamont, seconded by Cr Jane Smith, asked for a further report before the transfer was finalised on the implications of operational rather than community land, and on the legal protections keeping the land public. Cr Sharon Walsh, seconded by Cr Belinda Neal, moved to classify the land as community land with a plan of management. Cr Smith, seconded by Cr Lamont, moved to leave the land unclassified for now and publicly exhibit both options.

Each amendment was lost 7 to 8, and the motion then carried 8 to 7, on the same split every time. For the motion: Mayor Lawrie McKinna, Deputy Mayor John Mouland and Crs Kyla Daniels, Eaton, Rachel Stanton, Jared Wright, McNamara and Trent McWaide. Against: Crs Kyle MacGregor, Margot Castles, Helen Crowley, Walsh, Neal, Smith and Lamont.

What has changed since

At the September meeting Cr Walsh put a question the officers took on notice: could they name one management action currently contemplated for the six lots that Council could not carry out as community land under a plan of management? Their answer is in the 27 October agenda, published on 22 October. They do not name one. For the five Wamberal lots, they say, the intended use is reasonably certain, and further consideration of Council’s existing plans of management indicates that classification as community land, with appropriate categorisation, can suitably align with actions identified within Council’s adopted strategies.

The answer also reports a firmer position from the state: Subsequent discussions with DPHI have confirmed its further expectation that all parcels be classified as community land upon transfer.

The Avoca lot is less settled. The officers suggest much of it could join Winney Bay Reserve as bushland, but the house, of presently unknown condition, is still leased, with about a year to run, and the department now says that transfer of that lot is unlikely to be completed in 2026-27. The officers float either another use for the house or demolition, before or after transfer, and say any future use would have to fit what community land allows.

The motions on 27 October

Crs Walsh, MacGregor and Crowley have given notice of a motion to rescind C-26/1155. If it carries, Cr Walsh will move a fresh resolution that keeps the in-principle support for all six lots and makes them community land on acquisition, to the extent the Act permits. It would also require the Chief Executive Officer to get legal advice, before the transfer is finalised, on each lot’s existing status and any trusts, conditions or transfer instruments, and to check the classification against section 31(3) of the Act. That subsection bars a council from classifying land operational where doing so would be inconsistent with any other Act, the terms of any trust applying to the land or the terms of any instrument executed by the donor or transferor of the land. The motion also asks for a report on plans of management for the land, one setting out why Council needs Operational land to do that Community Land cannot do, and a site visit to the six lots for interested councillors before any transfer.

Separately, item 7.15, a land transfer update, was listed with its report to come; the officers’ answer said staff were preparing a supplementary report on the six lots. It went up on the evening of 22 October and recommends rescinding the operational classification, community land for the five Wamberal lots and no decision yet on Avoca (see the note at the top).

Our view

The case for operational land was flexibility while uses were unsettled. On the officers’ own answer, that case has largely gone for Wamberal: the uses are reasonably certain and community land can align with Council’s adopted strategies. It also runs against what the state now says it expects. The papers describe the transfer as not yet finalised, and the Act lets Council classify land up to three months after it acquires it, so there is still time to change course, subject to the legal checks the foreshadowed motion asks for.

Avoca is a fair question, because a leased house of unknown condition is an unusual thing to put under a bushland plan of management. But the officers’ answer says that lot will probably not transfer this financial year, which leaves time to settle it. The scheme exists to keep the coast in public hands. If councillors kept the operational classification on 27 October, they should say what it allows that community land would not, because their officers, asked for one such action currently contemplated, did not name one.

What happens next

Council met on 27 October. We have read the supplementary report (see the note at the top) and will report the decisions on the rescission motion and item 7.15 from the minutes.

1. 1973 The Coastal Lands Protection Scheme begins.
2. 3 July 2026 The department writes to Council about transferring the six lots.
3. 22 September 2026 Council supports the transfer in principle and classifies the lots operational land, 8 to 7.
4. 22 October 2026 The 27 October agenda is published with the rescission motion and the officers’ answer to Cr Walsh.
5. 22 October 2026 That evening a supplementary agenda adds the item 7.15 report: community land for the Wamberal lots, Avoca deferred.
6. 27 October 2026 Ordinary Council meeting: the rescission motion and item 7.15.

Sources: Ordinary Council agenda and minutes of 22 September 2026, item 7.5; Ordinary Council agenda of 27 October 2026, items 3.1, 7.15 and 9.2, and its supplementary agenda.