Hastings Point is a small settlement on the coast just south of Tweed Heads and the NSW border.
The effects have been largely felt at Hastings Point; human impact has been the cause of a great deal of damage to the abiotic and biotic factors of the surrounding environments such as the mangroves, rocky shore, and sand dunes.Hastings Point in the last 5 years to 10 years has been subject to a great deal of negative development, corrupt council members which has resulted in sewage flooding, dredging , sewage into the creek, mangrove degradation, destruction of rocky shore environments and longshore drift. The mangroves are being destroyed for development; the rocky shores are suffering from people taking too many sea urchins and oysters which destroy the wildlife.The sand dunes have been degraded by humans walking all over the dunes which wear them down and have caused them to be so far back from the water.
3), (1) and (4) One of the main concerns of human impact in Hastings Point is the residential and the commercial development that was approved by the corrupt council members and the development areas never underwent environmental checks which has led to a great deal of damage. When unchecked development happens and sewage pipes get cracked, eutrophication can happen and decaying algae can build up and cause the water which the sewage has leaked into to become toxic. As a result of the decaying algae, large fish kills can occur because of the toxic water and change in pH.In the case of Hastings Point there is sewage leaking into the estuary but not constant enough or in large enough amounts to destroy the creek; if unchecked development were to continue then the estuary would become toxic and any organisms that live in there would die and the area would become unliveable for any future potential organisms wanting to live there.
There are so many ways for humans to influence the environment and many of them are negative, longshore drift carries sand and can move the sand from dredging by currents carrying the sand.Sand dredging and longshore drift are other impacts occurring at Hastings Point and the result can be sand ending up in areas that it wasn’t intended to go, blocking the estuaries and the salinity levels increasing because of the dredging, this is killing the mangroves. Mangroves are able to tolerate a certain amount of salt, but the sand dredging adds new salt to the water and the mangroves aren’t able to cope and so they die. The mangroves are a habitat for many creatures such as White Bellied Eagles, Small Fish, Crabs and other small organisms.
If the environment for these organisms is destroyed the population densities of all these organisms will greatly reduce and reduce further if it continues, competition for food will also be greater because of organisms dying and competition for habitat as well. Cudgera Creek, one of the main areas that all this is happening also has it’s owns problems, the bridge/walkway that was built over the estuary caused silting in the creek bed and because of this the flow of water gets blocked up and when the water cannot flow through the creek it can cause flooding of Hastings Point.The silting of the creek is just another negative result that has been caused by human impact. (2), (1) and (4) If there was no development in the area, the state of the ecosystem may improve.
The development that has already occurred has negatively impacted the area and if development was to stop then the ecosystem could never recover fully to the state that it was but small improvements may happen. Too much damage has already been done, and once the damage gets to a certain point it can’t return to the way it was.No development in the area although it would not damage the area anymore, any sewage pipes that leak or any other infrastructure problems would not be addressed and this could cause just as much damage as over developing. These negative impacts have consequences that are most definitely going to affect the area for future generations and if the issues are not addressed properly then the problems will only get worse.
If development continued without regulations and without building checks and sites being approved the environment in the area will be destroyed and one the main areas this will happen will be the mangroves. The mangroves are a delicate part of the ecosystem at Hastings Point and the continuing pollution of them and the surrounding areas will result in the destruction of all mangroves in the area, and will cause the inhabitants of the mangroves to leave and look for a new area in which they can survive.The result of the organisms looking for new areas could cause an endangerment of the organisms because there are not enough areas for them to survive and Hastings Point would no longer have the biodiversity that it currently does. For the ecosystem to survive the most beneficial option for both the ecology of the area and the people that live there would be sustainable development.
When all the buildings are assessed and approved by the council and site checks are done to prevent damage to the environment then the environment may benefit and recover over a period of time.If sustainable development had always been the priority of the council then many of the construction sites that were approved by the corrupt council would have been disallowed and the environment would be in a better state, and the habitats that were destroyed due to construction and or the after effects of construction such as sewage would be intact. There are many ways for humans to impact the environment in which they live and through the actions of human beings we have the power to negatively or positively impact the habitats of organisms and the organisms themselves.Through our actions at Hastings Point the area has been negatively impacted by construction, dredging, infrastructure problems, and degradation of habitats.
The way in which the people of Hastings Point decide conduct themselves in the environment and the way the Tweed Council influence, buildings being erected and protection policies will decide then whether or not the area will continue to have the abiotic and biotic factors unharmed.
