Coastal Management Programs– City of Newcastle Update

Hosted by Pam Dean Jones, the Project officers from the City of Newcastle will present on the development of the Coastal Management Programs (CMPs) for the Newcastle Southern Beaches and Stockton.

Speaker 1: Philippa Hill, Senior Strategist – Environment – City of Newcastle

Philippa joined City of Newcastle in 2020 as part of the team tasked with developing NSW’s first Coastal Management Program for Stockton  in 3 months. Now as the Senior Strategist – Environment she is leading the development of the Extended Stockton Coastal Management Program which captures an expanded spatial scope and investigations into coastal management activities to complement the Stockton mass nourishment strategy. The Extended Stockton CMP is due for completion in 2023.

Philippa has over 20 years experience of working as the interface between local government and the community in coastal and environmental management.

Phillipa will provide an overview of  the transition from the Stockton CMP 2020 to the Extended Stockton CMP and the challenges of championing NSWs first mass beach nourishment strategy.

Speaker 2: Joshua van Leir, Environmental Strategist – City of Newcastle 

Josh is currently leading development of a Coastal Management Program for Newcastle’s Southern Beaches. Prior to this, he was a Senior Scientist with Fisheries New Zealand, while also holding office as an elected member on the Greater Wellington Regional Council. Josh received his PhD from the Australian National University in seascape ecology, and published several peer-reviewed articles based on the results. Josh has volunteered for a number of environmental organisations over the years and is an advocate for citizen science, effective science communication and forward-thinking governance.

Josh will provide a presentation on recent coastal process and hazard results for Newcastle’s Southern Beaches (Nobbys to Burwood), the implications of these results and future work in this space.