NIRAG held its last quarterly meeting in August and the minutes are available on the Flame's website.

• Importantly that meeting voted to support the YES23 vote campaign and the referendum to have a Voice to Parliament to give First Nations peoples the right to have a say over laws that affect them. One of NIRAG’s key objectives is “To support Aboriginal Reconciliation and recognise the cultural rights of Indigenous Australians”. The Cunningham electorate voted decisively in favour of YES.
• A motion was passed that Council ban fossil fuel gas connections in new homes and that more be done to require solar and PV friendly power in homes and apartments, new commercial buildings and community facilities.  Council now has a Draft Climate Mitigation Plan 2023-2030 on exhibition until 30 October. Members are urged view it on line and to contribute.
• It is pleasing that Council has now started reconstruction and widening to 4m of the cycleway at Trinity Row, Bulli.
• NIRAG and the Hewitts Ck Bushcare group participated in the Spring Rise and Shine with a cleanup of the Hewitts Ck / McCauleys Beach area on 9^th October. (See photo above).
• Recently members attended community sessions about Anglicare’s Seniors Living Development plans for the site between Wilkies Street and Tramway Creek, Bulli.  The site will include 229 apartments and a 41 bed “Care Hub”. This project will have huge impacts on local traffic and the project manager is Matt Theris of Stantec (formerly Cardno). NIRAG is liaising with the team to ensure that the bridge across Tramway Creek connecting Geraghty Street is built to provide an alternative emergency link from Bulli to the eastern part of Thirroul.
• It imperative that the entire Geraghty Street connection is constructed as a Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) scheme, with a design speed of 40kph or less, to be safe for elderly and other vulnerable residents.  Construction traffic and local traffic in McCauley Beach estate will then continue on to Sandon Drive, Point St, and further south.  A LATM design would tend to limit the volume of additional “rat run” traffic generation through residential streets. ARV representatives will attend our November 1^st meeting, and further information sessions will be held on 8^th and 10^th November.
• Consultation has been extended until 15th November 2023 for the Offshore Wind turbines proposal for a future renewable energy project.  Information about this is available online at: https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/oei-illawarra. You can take the survey or email a submission to offshorerenewables@dcceew.gov.au. Pending the outcome of discussion and input at our next meeting, it is proposed that members support the “Electrify 2515” response which can be found at https://electrify2515.org/ .

The next NIRAG quarterly meeting will be on Wednesday, 1 November 2023 at 7pm at the Bulli Community Centre. All welcome.

Contact Ross Dearden by email: nirag@bigpond.com