Biodiversity Strategy - Gosford City Council - NSW Government

A - 4.9
Current Landuse
Since the 1940s areas east of the Pacific Highway, particularly along the coast, have become
increasingly developed and urbanised. Some semi rural areas remain such as sections of the
old Gosford Model Farms along The Entrance Road towards Erina Heights, and in the Erina
Valley Road area. These areas are however likely to come under pressure for more intensive
urban development as part of the State government’s plan for urban consolidation and to
accommodate projected population increases. The Central Coast region was recognised as
recently as 2005.
The Central Coast serves as a commuter area to nearby metropolitan centres with the local
workforce traveling to Sydney, especially western Sydney, and Newcastle/Hunter area for
employment. The area has a diverse economy, predominately based on manufacturing, retail,
health and community services, education, construction and business with tourism making a
valuable contribution (ref). The four biggest areas of employment in the region are retail trade
(16.2%), health and community services (12.1%), business services (11.2%), and
manufacturing (9.9%), however there is a wide diversity of industry providing employment
across the region (GCC).
The plateau areas of Mangrove Mountain, Somersby, Peats Ridge and Kulnura Plateau have
been traditionally used for agricultural uses such as vegetable crops, citrus production, cuts
flowers and broiler poultry production (GCC 1999). There are number of extractive industries
operating in the area, primarily sand for the building industry but also hard rock aggregate (blue
metal), clay/shale and sawn sandstone (GCC 1999). The importance of the area for its high
quality agricultural lands, favourable climatic conditions and the proximity to domestic and
export markets have been identified through a State Regional Environmental Plan (SREP) 8
that maps and protects prime agricultural lands. A review of planning provisions for this area
undertaken by Council (GCC 1999) concluded that agriculture continues to be a legitimate land
use and important for agricultural production, especially as similar lands in the Sydney Basin are
lost. However nearly all of the plateau has been identified as potential extractive resource by the
(former) Department of Mineral and Industries (GCC 1999). This potential conflict over landuse
is likely to continue given other mineral and extractive resources being exhausted elsewhere.
Groundwater extraction is also a major industry on the plateau areas and concerns have been
raised about potential depletion of groundwater resources.
Residential and commercial developments are the major forms of development in the coastal
areas. There are limited industrial and commercial zonings, major industrial areas are
concentrated in West Gosford along Manns Rd and in the Somersby Industrial Park, some other
areas are Lisarow, North Gosford and Kincumber. Major commercial areas are at Erina along
the Entrance Road and nearby including Erina Fair, Gosford CBD, Kincumber, Terrigal and Woy
Woy.
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Population and Trends
The City’s population was estimated to be 162,841 in 2004 (preliminary estimate) with a median
age at June 2003 of 39.6 years (Australian Bureau of Statistics report on website undated). The
vast majority of this population is located in the coastal precincts while only 2.4% of residents
are situated in the Mountains Planning Precinct.
With its close proximity to major cities with good transport linkages, the Central Coast is under
strong pressure for future population growth. Although, as noted in the Central Coast: Regional
Profile & Social Atlas (Wyong Shire Council et al. 2004), there has been a slowdown in
population growth from 1991 to 1996 to 1996 to 2001. Average annual growth rates for these
two periods differed from 2.4% per annum for the five year period to 1996 to 1.8% per annum
for the last five years and it was noted that most of the slowdown had occurred in Gosford City.
Biodiversity - Technical Report Page 92