‘Friends of the Minnamurra River’ (FOMR Inc.) have written to both the Shellharbour CEO Mike Archer and the Kiama Council CEO Jane Stroud and to both Mayors, Chris Homer and Neil Reilly, to express their concerns about controlled release of drainage water into the Minnamurra River from the building site for the new Shellharbour hospital at Dunmore.

In a surprise move these concerns have been supported by a new group of Shellharbour citizens, Jacqueline Forst, Greg Forst and Hazel Campbell. They have written to Shellharbour Council stating no Environmental Impact Statement nor Climate Resilience Report has been submitted for the move of Shellharbour Hospital to the Dunmore site. Some of the Shellharbour group have gone as far as to question whether Dunmore is the wrong site for a new hospital and should be stopped completely. Sources have recently said one of the three wings, the pediatric wing, has been abandoned which raises questions whether the whole project is starting to be considered unviable by the NSW Government  as the services decrease while cost and environmental concerns are on the rise.

The current plan will see many hundreds of tonnes of loose soil be stored within 100 metres of the legally protected environment of the Minnamurra River, home to a number of threatened and endangered species.

The Shellharbour group in their letter state, ‘The developer must notify the Commonwealth Government if the Development is within 10-km of a registered rainforest. There is no evidence of this notification in the documents submitted to the Council.” 

In all the reports the site description fails to mention the coastal wetlands and Minnamurra River, less than 800 metres downhill from the excavation site and 100 metres from the storage site.

FOMR Inc. strongly recommends that a margin of safety greater than the old “industry

standard” should be added to contingency plans to provide for the far more frequent and more intense rainfall events locally, with climate change predicted to intensify in the next two summers as we enter an El Niño weather pattern. Their concerns are particularly focused on the claim that Kiama Council has not been informed of this controlled release, and that the building site has guaranteed no run-off water will enter the Boral sand mining pit next door.  

FOMR Inc. are especially focused on the threats for climate change of increased flooding and the Shellharbour Council have not done a Climate Resilience report but have relied on ‘outdated’ NSW standards. The solution FOMR are seeking are regular and publicised water quality tests of the drainage water, especially before and after any controlled water release into Minnamurra River,  as specified in the Shellharbour Council assessment report. The Shellharbour Planning Assessment report states, “This water will be held in sediment basins and discharged in accordance with industry standards to existing culverts within the railway corridor on the eastern side of the highway and piped down into the Minnamurra River system.”

The proposed plan is to have “two sediment basins designed to hold rainfall for the 85th percentile five year rain event, with the basins themselves designed to withstand a 10 year rain event”. This is compliant with the requirements of the industry standard guidelines for NSW.

It does seem likely to be overwhelmed and then cause generalised sediment and possible pollutant release into the fragile Minnamurra ecology during a flood. Increased rainfall, and increased high levels of flooding, are predicted to increase significantly even over the next five years, the period in which the Shellharbour hospital is being built.

The Shellharbour Council hospital earthworks modifications assessment report also states that “The proposed civil plans provide details confirming that prior to discharge of site stormwater,

groundwater and seepage water into Council’s stormwater system, contractors must

undertake water quality tests in conjunction with a suitably qualified environment consultant.

As early as 1988, a Shellharbour Council Environmental Impact Statement warned that

“Previous studies indicate that these (Minnamurra River) wetlands are showing signs of

environmental stress generally thought to be a result of urban and agricultural run-off and the

effect of the garbage tips, sand mining activity and a night soil depot in the vicinity of

Rocklow Creek.”

The Hospital is being developed by the NSW Government Health Infrastructure department  however their website for the hospital has not been updated for 10-months. Shellharbour Hospital Redevelopment

There has also been criticism of the hospital for not having a helipad or maternity ward, and emergency access to the Hospital from Kiama is restricted as the old Dunmore Road railway crossing is still not available to general traffic (only quarry traffic) adding up to a extra 20 minutes via the roundabout at Shellharbour Road, though there have been plans to open the much quicker Dunmore Road route possibly only for emergency. It has also been suggested the hospital was part of the Greater Cities Commision plan for Kiama to become a city but the Greater Cities Commission was axed by the incoming Minns Labor government in NSW.

Col Douch overflight of the Dunmore hospital site on 17 August 2023.  Col Douch Hospital overflight