Lord Mayor's Column: Walking the Walk

This week, I had the pleasure of dropping in on Council’s north works crew and talking with the team who are working on the latest leg of the Grand Pacific Walk in Austinmer.

They certainly didn’t have a bad office!!! There’s nothing like a warm autumn day and the salt air to make you feel energetic, and it really was quite therapeutic watching them smooth out the freshly poured concrete.

The team are currently reconstructing the existing pathways along Lawrence Hargrave Drive near the playground. The old, narrow footpath is being replaced with a new, wider shared pathway that will significantly improve the safety of those walking, cycling, pushing a pram along this stretch.

With Austinmer Beach home to facilities including a shower, adult change table and hoist in the Pavilion amenities, as well as assessable beach matting and beach wheelchair during the swim season (October to April), it’s really important to Council that the pathways also meet accessibility requirements.

This latest link is part of an ongoing piece of work to provide a safe, scenic route for walkers and cyclists along the 60km stretch of coastline from the Royal National Park in the north to Lake Illawarra in the south.

The work through Austinmer is being phased to minimize disruption as much as possible, with the next two sections on the team’s work list covering Little Austinmer Lane and then a link on Kennedy’s Hill. They anticipate all the works will be finished by November – ahead of the busy summer months in this precinct.

It’s important work and projects that I know are very much appreciated by the community once they’re finished.

In fact, we know how much they’re appreciated because we had a lot of really useful feedback from residents late last year when we shared some proposed plans for improvements around Coledale and the beach car park as part of future Grand Pacific Walk works.

Right now, Council’s design team are making some tweaks to the final plans for this area with construction planned for the 2027-2028 financial year.

While I was in Austinmer, I also checked out Austinmer Train Station where another safety project will get underway in the coming months.

Here, on both sides of the station, there will be safety improvements made including the construction of new pedestrian islands. This is a real positive step as I know these spots can be tricky for cars, pedestrians and buses to negotiate at busy times.

It’s exciting to see the plans coming to fruition for the benefit of our community.