Rush for beach lifestyle causes coastal crush
Gordon Walker is living the Australian dream. A year ago, the 46-year-old sold his house and waste-disposal business in Sydney and bought a five-bedroom home by the beach, 800km to the north on the coast of New South Wales.
'We see dolphins and whales almost every day,' he said, still dripping wet from a morning surf. 'It's a great life. Smell the air - it's so clean.'
Mr Walker is one of thousands of urban refugees who are flocking to the coast in search of their own little piece of paradise.
Nearly 70,000 Australians moved to the beach in the year to June 2003 - the highest number in 13 years.
Four million Australians, one-fifth of the country's population, now live in rural coastal areas - more than double 25 years ago.
They have been dubbed 'Seachangers', after a popular television drama about the phenomenon.
But the massive shift threatens to turn exquisite coastline into unrelenting strips of bland suburbia, much of it distinguished by an ugly mish-mash of architectural styles.
Environmentalists say sensitive sand dunes and wetlands are being destroyed, while local councils fear they do not have enough schools, hospitals or jobs to cope with the new arrivals.
The development Mr Walker and his family call home is one of the country's most controversial and took 15 years to secure planning approval.
When it is completed, Casuarina Beach, promoted in glossy brochures as 'a new oceanfront township', will accommodate 4,000 people in 1,650 houses and apartments on a 4km stretch of deserted beach north of Byron Bay.
'A lot of the people moving in are baby boomers. They are fitter and wealthier than their parents' generation. They still want to be surfing when they're 60,' the project's marketing manager, Tony O'Neill, said.
A few miles to the north another enormous development, Salt, is being built on the fringes of the town of Kingscliff.
'This used to be a lovely little village,' said retired salesman Marshall Langley, 80. 'Now look at it. We now have one continuous coastal strip all the way from here to Queensland.'
One of the country's leading demographers, Bernard Salt, said the invasion was creating a 'third Australian culture', after those of the bush and the city.
'We are no longer defined by the jolly swagman, or even the kind of surburbia epitomised by Kylie from Neighbours.
'Australia's demography is now gravitating towards the new 'sea-burbs',' Mr Salt said.
Few towns are under as much pressure as Byron Bay, a picturesque former whaling port of 6,000 people, inundated with 1.7 million visitors a year. But locals recently defeated a plan to build 380 houses on a nearby beach, arguing it would have threatened rare bird species.
