Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012.

A STUDY ON THE COASTAL WALK ON THE EASTERN COAST OF METROPOLITAN ,

Tetsuya ANDO1 and Keiko ONO2

1Member of JSCE, Associate Professor, Dep. of Architecture and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of the Ryukyus (1 Senbaru, Nishihara-cho, Okinawa 903-0213) E-mail: [email protected] 2Professor, Dep. of Law and Economics, Okinawa University (555 Kokuba, Naha, Okinawa 902-8521)

This study looks at the development and characteristics of the Great Coastal Walk of Metropolitan Syd- ney, , Australia. Covering 100 km, this coastal walk connects beaches and trails on the eastern coast of Sydney and was officially opened in 2008. The idea to create a walking path along the entire coastline of Sydney was proposed in the late 1980s. To realize this vision, the NSW state govern- ment made a master plan for the project and developed subsidies to support municipalities’ individual plans for sections of the coastal walk route. As a result, the development of the long coastal walk has pro- vided an opportunity to reevaluate the condition of Sydney’s coastal front as a public asset.

Key Words: Australia, Sydney, waterfront, public access, openspace, trails

1. INTRODUCTION Meanwhile, in Australia, on 22 July 2008, the Great Coastal Walk along the eastern coast of Metro- In recent years, there has been growing concern politan Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), covering over the decreasing public accessibility to the ocean 100 km from Barrenjoey around Sydney Harbour front due to landfills, industrial development and () to the Royal National Park was offi- private development in Japan. Since the 1990’s, cially opened by then NSW Environmental Minister efforts have been made to improve public acces- Verity Firth.4 sibility through Nagisa-kaido, a shore zone in the The idea of creating a coastal walk to completely Osaka Bay area which spans over 1,000 kilome- connect trails along the eastern coast of Sydney was ters.1 More recently, there has been discussion of originally proposed by Bob Carr in the late 1980s, developing Sanriku-kaigan trail, a 350 kilometer- when he was a young environmental minister, later long coastal trail for tourism, education, evacuation becoming the Premier of NSW (1995-2005). This routes in disasters and connecting coastal communi- idea became a project for the Bicentennial Memorial ties in the Tohoku region, which suffered massive in 1988.5 After two decades, the Great Coastal Walk damage from the tsunami disaster in 2011.2 On the was finally completed and 21 departments from other hand, in the prefecture of Okinawa where the various government agencies that had cooperated to authors live, a subtropical island region surrounded solve the ‘bureaucratic red tape’ were invited to the by sea, opportunities to enjoy its long coastal front opening ceremony.6 is limited particularly in urban and suburban ar- Since the late 19th century, beaches have rapidly eas. Increasing obesity is a serious social issue in gained popularity in Australia as a location for rec- Okinawa (the proportion of obesity is the highest reational activities. At the beginning of the 20th among prefectures in Japan). Providing an attractive century, ocean-bathing during the daytime became walking environment at the coastal front may con- legal and the number of visitors to the beaches rapid- tribute to the promotion of public health within the ly increased.7 At the same time, swimming as a form community as well as the enhancement of tourism, of exercise became popular and many ocean baths Okinawa’s most important industry. Partial coastal were constructed on the coast.8 During the Great De- zone development for walking trails can be seen in pression in the 1930’s, ocean baths were often either Chatan-cho.3 reconstructed or expanded as public works. At the

26 Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012. same time, several individual trails leading to beach- 2. FEATURES OF THE COASTAL WALK es such as Bondi-Bronte Walk were also constructed ROUTE ALONG THE EASTERN 9 (Fig.1). Eventually, such trails would be connected SHORE OF METROPOLITAN SYDNEY to form the Great Coastal Walk. In Australia, land along the coastline up to 100 In this chapter, the physical features of the coastal feet from the high water mark was supposed to be walk route from Palm Beach to Maroubra Beach reserved as crown land in the early years of develop- (62.6 km, excluding some areas in Sydney Harbour) 10 ment and used for public facilities like harbours, were analyzed. Topographical maps on a scale of reserves and beaches. However, there are areas where private development has occupied the coastal front. The development of the continuous coastal ▽ Barrenjoey Head walk route in Sydney as a result has provided an op- portunity to reevaluate the condition of the coastal ◀ Palm Beach front as a public asset. ◀ Whale Beach This research paper aims to study the features of the Great Coastal Walk of Metropolitan Sydney and how it has been developed, including the roles of ◀ Avalon Beach ◀ Bilgola Beach public governments at state and local levels. The ◀ Newport Beach goal of the paper is to understand the basic nature of ◀ Bungan Beach the coastal walk in Sydney as a form of maintaining Pittwater ◀ Basin Beach ◀ Mona Vale Beach public accessibility to the coastal front and sharing it ◀ Warriewood Beach as a public asset. ◀ Turrimetta Beach The first part of the study looks at the physical fea- ◀ Narabeen Beach tures of Sydney’s coastal walk through information ◀ Collaroy Beach Warringah obtained from a field survey conducted in September ◀ Fishermans Beach 2007. The second part of the study is based on infor- ◀ Long Reef Beach ◀ Beach mation from interviews also conducted in Septem- ber 2007 with the NSW state government and local ◀ Beach Castle Rock Beach councils which are involved in developing coastal ◀ Freshwater Beach trails. The section of the coastal walk route studied Manly ◀ Clonturf Beach ▲▲▲ through actual walking spans a length of 62.6 km ▶ ◀◀ Chinamans Beach ▲ ◀ 11 ◀ Delwood Beach from Palm Beach to Maroubra Beach (Fig.2). The Fairlight Beach ◀ Edwards Beach section around Sydney Harbour and south of Marou- ◀ Balmoral Beach Forty Basket Beach Corner Beach Reef Beach bra Beach was not included in this survey as there ▲ Sharks ▲ ▶ 12 ▲ Beach ▶ was more frequent usage of public roads. The mu- ▼ Gibsons Beach Sydney Harbour ▶ nicipalities within the section surveyed are Pittwater, Milk Beach Warringah, Manly, Woollahra, Waverley and Rand- ▼ wick. Sydney CBD Woollahra

Although there has been a guidebook published on Waverly ◀ ◀ Tamarama Beach Sydney’s coastal walks, there has previously been no ◀ 13 Randwick ▲ ◀ Clovelly Beach academic study on the topic. ◁ Gordons Bay ◀ Coogee Beach ◁ Lurline Bay Sydney Airport ◀ Maroubra Beach

◀ Malabar Beach

◀ Lady Robinson Beach ◁ Long Bay

Botany Bay Parts of Coastal Walk surveyed in this study Silver Beach ▼ Other parts of Coastal Walk

▶ Beaches of Coastal Walk

▷ Other (bays, points etc) ◀ Crollura Beach

0 5 10km

Fig.1 Bondi-Bronte Walk (Waverly). Fig. 2 Coastal walk of the eastern shore in Sydney.

27 Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012. 1:25000 issued by the Land Information Centre of ed into ‘trails in parks and reserves’, ‘beaches’ and New South Wales were used as base maps. ‘public roads.’ ‘Trails in parks and reserves’ are divided into (1) The coastal walk route’s composition two categories; ‘paved with concrete or asphalt’ a) Land use and ‘unpaved’ (including wooden steps and raised Land use along the coastal walk route can be di- boardwalks) (Table 2). 11.9 km (47.6 %) of the to- vided into two categories; ‘open space’ (47.2 km/ tal length of the trails was ‘paved’ and 13.1 km (the 75.4% of the coastal walk route) and ‘urban ar- remaining 52.4 %) was ‘unpaved.’ In municipalities eas’(15.4 km/ 24.6%) (Table 1). ‘Open space’ con- on the northern side of Sydney Harbour where the sists of ‘parks/reserves’ and ‘beaches.’ ‘Urban areas’ population was smaller, there were more ‘unpaved represent the public roads connecting them. trails’ as compared to the southern side, which had a Wollahra had the highest percentage of ‘parks/re- higher population density. In Woollahra, where the serves’ with 88.9%, followed by Manly (58.7%) and eastern side of the municipal area is a national park Randwick (50.0%). with cliffs, all trails were ‘paved.’ In the section of the coastal walk route studied, Out of the total length (22.2 km) of beaches in the there were 32 beaches.14 The municipality with the route, 5.8 km (26.1%) had ‘paved pedestrian paths’ highest ratio of beaches to the total length of the and the length of ‘natural’ beaches was 16.4 km coastal walk route was Warringah (62.0%), fol- (73.9%) (Table 3). In municipalities on the north- lowed by Pittwater (38.7%) and Manly (31.2%). In ern side of Sydney Harbour, beaches in Pittwater municipalities on the northern side of Sydney Har- and Warringah were found to be more ‘natural.’ In bour, there was more low land along the route and natural beaches, although no pedestrian paths have therefore, more beaches were found. On the south- been built, pedestrians were free to walk along the ern side of Sydney Harbour, there was more high beach. In Manly, beaches had been used as resort land along the shore and as a result, the percentage areas since the 19th century and contained more of ‘parks/reserves’ was higher as compared to the ‘paved pedestrian paths.’ On the other hand, more northern side. beaches with ‘paved pedestrian paths’ were found The municipality with the highest percentage of on Sydney’s south side, which is closer to a densely ‘urban areas’ (41.6% of the route within the munici- populated residential area. pality) was Waverly followed by Pittwater (36.1%) Public roads used for the coastal walk route have and Randwick (26.9%). In these municipalities, been classified by whether they have sidewalks private houses often occupied the coastal front. Mu- (when a road has physically separated space by nicipalities with a higher percentage of public roads curbs, etc). 8.0 km of the roads (51.9% of the to- tended to have ‘urban areas’ along their coastal walk tal length of the road) had sidewalks and 7.4 km route. (48.1%) did not (Table 4). Waverley (41.6%) and b) Conditions Pittwater (36.1%) had the highest percentage of ur- Conditions of the coastal walk route can be divid- ban areas in their coastal walk route (Table 1), and

Table 1 Composition of the coastal walk route by landuse. Table 2 Conditions of trails in parks/reserves of the coastal walk route. Open space Urban Areas Trails in parks/reserves Total Municipalities Parks/reserves Beaches Total Municipalities Paved Unpaved Total km ％ km ％ km ％ km % km ％ km ％ km ％ km ％ Sydney Pittwater 0.4 8.3% 4.4 91.7% 4.8 100.0% Sydney Pittwater 4.8 25.1% 7.4 38.7% 12.2 63.9% 6.9 36.1% 19.1 100.0% North Warringah 2.1 52.5% 1.9 47.5% 4.0 100.0% North Warringah 4.0 31.0% 8.0 62.0% 12 93.0% 0.9 7.0% 12.9 100.0% Manly 2.1 32.8% 4.3 67.2% 6.4 100.0% Manly 6.4 58.7% 3.4 31.2% 9.8 89.9% 1.1 10.1% 10.9 100.0% Sydney Woollahra 1.6 100.0% 0.0 0.0% 1.6 100.0% Sydney Woollahra 1.6 88.9% 0.0 0.0% 1.6 88.9% 0.2 11.1% 1.8 100.0% South Waverly 2.7 62.8% 1.6 37.2% 4.3 100.0% South Waverly 4.3 42.6% 1.6 15.8% 5.9 58.4% 4.2 41.6% 10.1 100.0% Randwick 3.9 50.0% 1.8 23.1% 5.7 73.1% 2.1 26.9% 7.8 100.0% Randwick 3.0 76.9% 0.9 23.1% 3.9 100.0% Total 25.0 39.9% 22.2 35.5% 47.2 75.4% 15.4 24.6% 62.6 100.0% Total 11.9 47.6% 13.1 52.4% 25.0 100.0% *Paved:trails with hard surface (excluding boardwalks) Table 3 Conditions of beaches in the coastal walk route. Table 4 Conditions of roads in the coastal walk route. Beaches Roads With paved Municipalities Natural Total Municipalities Sidewalks No sidewalks Total pedestrian path km ％ km ％ km ％ km ％ km ％ km ％ Sydney Pittwater 0.9 13.0% 6.0 87.0% 6.9 100.0% Sydney Pittwater 0.0 0.0% 7.4 100.0% 7.4 100.0% North Warringah 0.8 88.9% 0.1 11.1% 0.9 100.0% North Warringah 1.1 13.8% 6.9 86.2% 8.0 100.0% Manly 1.9 55.9% 1.5 44.1% 3.4 100.0% Manly 0.8 72.7% 0.3 27.3% 1.1 100.0% Sydney Woollahra 0.0 0.0% 0.0 0.0% 0.0 0.0% Sydney Woollahra 0.2 100.0% 0.0 0.0% 0.2 100.0% South Waverly 1.6 100.0% 0.0 0.0% 1.6 100.0% South Waverly 4.0 95.2% 0.2 4.8% 4.2 100.0% Randwick 1.2 66.7% 0.6 33.3% 1.8 100.0% Randwick 1.3 61.9% 0.8 38.1% 2.1 100.0% Total 5.8 26.1% 16.4 73.9% 22.2 100.0% Total 8.0 51.9% 7.4 48.1% 15.4 100.0% *Paved:trails with hard surface (excluding boardwalks)

28 Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012. while most roads in Waverley had sidewalks (95.2%), The municipality with the highest percentage of most roads in Pittwater did not (87.0%). The roads detoured routes was Pittwater (37.2% of the route in municipalities closer to central Sydney tended to within the municipality) followed by Waverly (29.7 have sidewalks. However, the further their distance %) and Randwick (11.5 %). No detours were found from central Sydney, the more the roads tended not in Woollahra. to have sidewalks. This is due to roads in residential In Pittwater, there were reserves on the coastal quarters being used as part of the coastal walk route side of housing areas. However, they were often in outer suburbs. found in areas below cliffs, where it would be inap- propriate to build a path for the coastal walk route. (2) Two specific features In other areas, private housing occupied the ocean Sydney’s Great Coastal Walk was realized based front land and there was no space for trails. These on Carr’s vision to connect the open spaces of Syd- problems seem to have become apparent when the ney’s eastern shore. When the coastal front areas idea of a continuous walking route was presented. were reevaluated with the intention of creating a sin- b) Introduction of boardwalks gle path along the entire coast, there were two major Recently, boardwalks have been used for trails obstacles. The first obstacle was the private housing in places with uneven land. Boardwalks are raised that occupied the coastal front. This problem was platforms made of wooden boards (Fig.7).15 Board- often solved by making a detour in the route. The walks have mostly been installed on cliffs or wet- second obstacle was the topographical conditions, land and tend to be attractive tourist destinations for where land was uneven. This was fixed by installing visitors as they can enjoy the picturesque coastal boardwalks. landscape. The introduction of boardwalks created a) Detours of the coastal walk route a continual coastal path in places where it had been Land along the coastline was supposed to be re- difficult to build regular paths before. served as crown land (Fig.3), however, there are As compared to concrete pavements, boardwalks places where private housing occupies the coastal have a reduced impact on the natural environment. front (Fig.4). It is unclear why and when these de- However, because the cost of construction and main- velopments took place. Places that had manmade tenance is higher for boardwalks, their usage tends obstacles between the coastal front and the coastal to be limited in the coastal walk routes. walk route were defined as ‘detours.’ In the area In the section of the coastal walk route studied, studied, there were 21 detours (Fig.5 and Fig.6). there were 62 places where boardwalks were in- The total length of the detours added up to 11.8 km, stalled (Table 6, Fig.8), mainly due to ‘uneven foot- which was 18.9% of the total length of the coastal ing’ (37 places /59.7%), ‘gaps’ (20 places/32.3%), walk route studied (Table 5). and ‘hollows’ (including creeks) (5 places /8.0%).

Diamond Bay Reseve

A

Eastern Reseve

Dudley Page Reseve

B

Rodney Fig.4 Housing that occupies the coastal front (Waverly). Reseve Table 5 Detours of coastal walk route. Coastal Numbers Detours % of detours Municipalities walk route of in km within length in km detours municipalities Raleigh Reseve Sydney Pittwater 19.1 10 7.1 37.2% North Reserves Fig.3 Reserves along the coastal front Warringah 12.9 1 0.4 3.1% Manly 10.9 2 0.4 3.7% Detours (Waverly). Sydney Woollahra 1.8 0 0.0 0.0% 0 200m C South Waverly 10.1 6 3.0 29.7% Randwick 7.8 2 0.9 11.5% Fig.5 Example of Detoured Total 62.6 21 11.8 18.9% Sections (Waverly).

29 Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012. Among boardwalk areas with ‘uneven footing’, wet- Among municipalities, Manly was found to have lands have been included as places which require the most boardwalks with 30 (48.4%) (Table 7) environmental protection. while Warringah had 13 (21.0%) and Pittwater had 8 (12.9%). 51 (82.3%) of the 62 boardwalks were installed on the northern side of Sydney Harbour. On the northern side, the shoreline consists of head- lands and bays and the landscape is uneven. Also, there were many areas with natural vegetation that ●● ● required protection. In municipalities on the south- ● ern side of Sydney Harbour, there were 11 places

● (17.7%) where boardwalks were installed. ● ●

● ● ● Pittwater

●

Warringah ● ●

● Pittwater

● ●● ● Manly ● ● ●

● ● ● ● ● ● Warringah ● ● ● ●

Sydney Harbour ● ● A ● B ● ● C ●

●

Sydney CBD Woollahra ● ● ● ● Manly ● ●● ●●●● ● ● ● ●●●● Waverly ● ● ●●● ● ● ● ● ● ●

● Randwick ● Detours *Details of A-C shown in ● Fig 5.

Sydney Harbour ● 0 5 10km ● ●

Fig. 6 Detours of coastal walk route. Sydney CBD Woollahra

Waverly

● ● Randwick

● ● ● Boardwalks ● ●

●

0 5 10km

Fig.8 Locations of boardwalks.

Table 6 Reasons forBotany boardwalk Bay Table 7 Numbers of boardwalks installment. by municipalities. Reasons Number ％ Municipalities Number ％ Sydney Pittwater 8 12.9% Unstable footing 37 59.7% North Warringah 13 21.0% Gaps 20 32.3% Manly 30 48.4% Hollows 5 8.0% Sydney Woollahra 0 0.0% South Waverly 4 6.4% Total 62 100.0% Randwick 7 11.3% Fig.7 Boardwalk at Trennery Reserves (Randwick). Total 62 100.0%

30 Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012. 3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT b) Issues and challenges COASTAL WALK The map of existing regional trails in the state’s report appears to show that most of the land on the The Great Coastal Walk traverses 13 municipali- eastern shoreline is open to the public. However, ties. In order to understand how the coastal walk on the contrary, there are actually quite a number of route has been planned, funded and connected over places which are closed off to the public. Residents many localities, it was necessary to speak with plan- living in private housing with views of the ocean- ners at the state and municipal governments. front often object to the idea of placing trails in their At the state level, the authors were able to speak backyards. For example, in Waverley, residents of a with Belinda Rollason, Greenspace Programmes Co- luxury apartment objected to the idea of building a ordinator of the METROPOLITAN OPEN SPACE trail in the reserves in front of their homes. Although TEAM (MOST), Department of Planning, New the state government has been purchasing land on South Wales, about the role or the state government the coastal front over the last 4 or 5 decades, land in developing the coastal walk.16 prices have been skyrocketing recently and it is be- coming harder to do so. (1) The role of New South Wales state govern- The other function of the state government is to as- ment sist in communication between municipalities. When MOST develops policies for the open space de- neighboring municipalities develop coastal walk velopment of Metropolitan Sydney and provides routes, they need to work out how the two routes can funding for municipalities that develop open space be connected at the municipal borders. However, in in line with the state government policy. In 2004, reality, the communication taking place between the the state conducted a demand study of recreational municipalities is often insufficient. space across NSW and it was discovered that the Rollason considers the role of the state govern- facility highest in demand was trails.17 MOST then ment as a catalyst. The MGP acts to enhance efforts met with 44 municipalities in Sydney to identify made by municipalities to connect and reorganise important open spaces (including regional trails) and existing trails. She also suggested that the frame- created an inventory of open spaces. The state then work of the state government is somewhat like a developed a masterplan for trail networks on various guide map. Each council will plan trail development levels.18 as their own project, bringing their plans to actual a) The Metropolitan Greenspace Programme development with the state’s support. Development (MGP) of projects like coastal walk routes take years, but The Metropolitan Greenspace Programme (MGP) the policy for the Great Coastal Walk has been co- was begun in 1990 by the state to provide assistance herent, even with changes in political administration. to municipalities that wish to develop open space, including trails. This scheme provides a 50 % subsi- (2) The role of municipalities dy to municipalities that wish to develop open-space At the municipal level, the authors were able to facilities in accordance with the New South Wales speak with planners of Waverly and Randwick coun- policy. In 2006, the first year the state concentrated cils. on funding for trail development, there were 38 ap- Waverley has a population of 62,000 (2007) and plications, out of which 22 were given funding. Al- is home to the Bondi-Bronte Walk, which attracts though $1.9 million dollars in total was provided to 6,000 visitors a day during weekends.20 Their latest fund the building of the facilities, with the idea being addition was Cliff Walk (Fig. 9) in the northern part to provide $1 to $1 subsidy, municipalities altogeth- of the city, completed in 2004. At Waverly Council, er spent a total of $10 million dollars.19 Therefore, in the authors spoke with Camille Kelly, landscape ar- practice, state funding stimulated a local investment chitect and Park and Planning Manager.21 by municipalities 5 or more times the amount the Randwick, with a population of 130,000 (2007), subsidy provided. While the state budget concern- is located to the south of Waverley and has been up- ing MGP in the fiscal year 2007 was $2.4 million grading their Eastern Beach Coast Walk that extends dollars, there were 57 applications by various mu- the coastal walk route from Bondi Beach to the nicipalities, and the total funding required reached southern beaches. At Randwick Council, the authors up to $6 million dollars. All processes, from the spoke with Bettina Digby, Supervisor-Bush and design to the construction of the facilities, is usually Nursery, and Kerry Colquhuon, landscape architect, completed within two years from the allocation of about Randwick's coastal walk development.22 funding. For more complex projects, an additional a) The development of the coastal walk route in subsidy for the planning phase may be given. Waverly Previously, there were many reserves with ocean

31 Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012. views behind residential blocks which were not trails in the area and to connect trails to form the often used. The federal government began a new coastal walk route. subsidy scheme for new open space development In 1995, a goat track in the wetland of Trenerry in 1998, and Waverly Council received funding in Reserve was upgraded to a boardwalk. Coastal 2000 which enabled them to develop a new coastal walk development is often double-edged. While trail. The council spoke with the various communi- it increases environmental awareness, the natural ties, made plans for the new coastal trail and the first environment is also affected. One of the merits of phase of construction for Cliff Walk began in 2002. building a boardwalk is that pedestrians will be dis- In the second phase, the NSW state government’s couraged from straying from the main path. MGP provided the council with funding ($157,000 In the last couple of years, the Randwick council dollars, 50% of construction cost). When Cliff Walk has spent $4 million dollars developing and upgrad- was completed in 2004, Premier Bob Carr attended ing the coastal walk route and is planning to invest the opening ceremony. The completed Cliff Walk an additional $1 million dollars. The development connects 5 or 6 existing reserves. Its total length of trails near Marine Parade took place with the as- spans 3 kilometers and the construction cost, includ- sistance of a $150,000 dollar subsidy by the MGP. ing signs, was $1.5 million dollars. The trail to the south of Waverley was Trails in Waverly are built and maintained by recently upgraded. In 2007, the trail around a park- . In general, $50 to 60 thousand ing lot in Shark Point was scheduled to be upgraded dollars are needed for the repair and maintenance with $1 million dollars. This is a considerably large of trails every year. The lighting is limited on the budget for a municipality. The trail along Clovelly trails so as not to attract too many people after dark. Beach is also scheduled to be upgraded in the near Public bathrooms were not installed as they were future. unwanted around residential blocks. When developing a trail, Ranwick Council pres- In Waverley, the coastal walk route has been de- ents their development plan to the community and veloped by connecting patches of reserves along the asks for the public’s opinion. Previously there has coast. In sections where private housing has occu- been opposition from members of the community pied the edge of the coastal front, the route is made as the trail might obstruct their view of the sea and to detour around residential blocks. Previously, in it would not be pleasant to have people passing the 1970s, the NSW state government attempted to through their backyards. This proved not to be a buy a section of backyards from house owners, but problem as the houses were sitting on a higher level some of them rejected the offer. Ownership of land than the trails. However, the council was unsuccess- is therefore complicated in some sections. ful in buying land from an area where houses were Waverly Council is planning to conduct a feasibil- built to the high water mark near Lurin Bay. ity study and build a new trail below the Waverley The council has been negotiating with another cemetery. It is a rocky area where some wild veg- house owner whose housing property is obstruct- etation still remains. Since there is strong opposi- ing the route of the coastal walk. Also, there are a tion against the construction of a solid structure, the few more places where private housing occupies the council plans to introduce a boardwalk that has less coastal front and the route is made to detour. It is of an impact on the environment. The construction unknown why there is no crown land between pri- cost of boardwalks when Cliff Walk was built was vate housing and high water marks.23 $850-1,000 dollars per meter but has since risen by 10 to 15 %. b) Development of the coastal walk route in Randwick In Randwick, there have been trails for many years but they were mostly for accessing beaches and rarely used for walking. Since the 1970s and 80s, people have become more health conscious, and walking has increased in popularity. The council has developed several trails for various age groups so as to ensure their safety when walking. Trails along Long Bay were developed between 1987-1988. For the bicentennial celebration in 1988, the road along Coogee Beach was closed and converted into open space. At the same time, the council began to consider the continuity of existing Fig.9 Cliff Walk (Waverly).

32 Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012. The land to the south of Maroubra Beach is federal individual plans for sections of the coastal walk land and the council cannot develop a route which route over more than twenty years. passes through this area. However, the council is There were two major obstacles when munici- proposing a route for the possible future develop- palities tried to build coastal trails that were in ac- ment of the coastal walk in this federal land area. cordance with the NSW policy. The first obstacle Generally trails have been well received, but the was the private housing which occupied the coastal expansion of parking areas is not welcomed. The front. After surveying 62.6 km of the coastal walk, current plan maintains the number of parking lots it was found that approximately one fourth of the and upgrades the pedestrian space surrounding route studied (15.4 km) consisted of general roads parking areas. Another problem is that neighboring (of which 7.4 km did not have sidewalks). Most of municipalities may be developing trails with differ- this section (11.8 km) was made up of detours al- ent timings and designs. It is necessary for the mu- lowing for private development at the coastal front. nicipalities to work out the details of their respective The land prices in Sydney have risen so high that it coastal walk routes. is now very difficult for the state or municipalities to buy coastal land. The second obstacle was the areas (3) Summary of efforts by state and municipal with uneven topography at the coastal front. In or- governments der to achieve a continual coastal walk, local coun- The Great Coastal Walk in Sydney had three phas- cils have installed boardwalks in 62 places within es of development. the area studied. The first phase was before the vision of a continu- Sydney’s coastal walk took a long time to develop. ous coastal walk was presented. Coastal trails near Its development process had three stages (vision beaches were individually developed. →plan→implementation). Turning to the present The second phase began when Bob Carr’s vision state of affairs in Japan, in the case of Nagisa-kaido, to connect a walking space along the coastal front the vision and the masterplan have been presented. was presented in the late 1980s. Municipal govern- Long-term efforts at various levels are needed to ments utilized federal, state and their own funding continue to improve its coastal accessibility. In the to develop coastal trails forming parts of the Great case of Sanriku-kaigan trail, the vision has been Coastal Walk. presented. Further planning and means to material- The third phase began in the mid 2000s when the ize will be discussed assumedly once the vision is state drew a masterplan and concentrated on funding agreed. In the case of Okinawa, although there are for trails. Municipal governments have been active- fragments of efforts like the one by Chatan-cho, ly developing and improving their coastal trails. there is yet no coherent vision presented beyond mu- After the Great Coastal Walk’s official opening in nicipal boarders. A vision and a long-term master- 2008, the coastal walk has been actively promoted. plan on a larger scale are necessary to bring to life a Walking Coastal Sydney is a partnership project be- continuous wakling route for the public to access the tween community volunteers, local councils, state, ocean front. federal and other government authorities. The group The Sydney’s coastal walk provides us with an in- publishes route maps and runs a website providing spiring image of how the coastal front can be made information, as well as organizing walking events.24 publicly accessible. The coastal front is essentially a During the survey, the authors saw many local public asset and can be shared in a way to contribute residents walking on the coastal walk. The develop- to the community and to the general public. ment of an attractive walking environment is gaining importance as a means of promoting physical exer- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The authors thank the cise in Australia, where obesity is a serious public following individuals and organizations who assist- issue.25 Local councils are also promoting coastal ed in this research. Shuhei Hirooka, Tomoko Uno, trails for tourism. Aoi Kurima, John P. Lea, Pittwater Council, War- ringah Council, Woollahra Council, Waverly Coun- cil, Randwick Council and New South Wales Dep. 4. CONCLUSION of Planning. This is a part of a study on the coastal walk of Okinawa funded by Okinawa Prefectural Bob Carr’s vision to create a walking path along Foundation for Claims Regarding U.S. Acquired As- the entire coastline of Sydney in the 1980s ultimate- sets in 2007. ly materialized to become the Great Coastal Walk, 100 km in length. To realize this vision, the NSW ENDNOTES state government made a master plan for the project 1 For Nagisa-kaido and analysis on the condition of water front and developed subsidies to support municipalities’ in Osaka Bay Area, see Morikawa et al. (1994). The master-

33 Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Ser. D1 (Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment), Vol. 68, No. 1, 26-34, 2012. plan (1997) is available on the website of Osaka Bay Area 14 All beaches with names which appear in the topography map Development Organization (http://www.o-bay.or.jp/page/ on a scale of 1:25,000 are counted as well as the beach along nagisa_kaido.html). Manly’s Esplanade. A few beaches which seem physically to 2 The Japanese Ministry of Environment is proposing Sanriku- be one beach with plural names are counted as single beaches. kaigan Trail as a part of the Sanriku Reconstruction National 15 Wooden stairs to connect the route at level changes are in- Park plan (http://www.env.go.jp/guide/budget/h23/h23-hos- cluded as boardwalks. 3b/013.pdf, 2011). 16 Interview conducted on 28 September, 2007. 3 Chatan-cho, Okinawa-ken, developed a coastal community 17 See Sydney Metropolitan Regional Recreation Trails Frame- zone with subsidies from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, work (2005). Trails include horse tracks and cycling trails. Transport and Tourism (3.5 km, 1987-1995). See Ono et al. 18 Sydney Metropolitan Regional Recreation Trails Framework (2008: 146). (2005). 4 Sydney Morning Herald, 22 July, 2008. 19 The currency used is Australian dollars. The exchange rate at 5 The Bicentennial Coastal Walkway that runs 25 kilometers the time of survey (September 2007) was $1AUD=¥103 JYN. from Queen Cliff to Palm Beach was constructed in 1988 by 20 Survey by Waverly City Council in 2000. There was an av- then Warringah Council (Pittwater became a separate council erage of 370 users per hour on Bondi-Bronte Walk. At peak in 1992) incorporating Bicentennial Grant Funding (http:// hours on sunny Saturdays, there were up to 838 users per www.pittwater.nsw.gov.au/environment/bushland/maps/bi- hour. centennial_coastal_walkway). The 10 km-long Manly Scenic 21 Interview conducted on 21 September, 2007. Walkways in Manly was also opened in 1988 (Manly Secenic 22 Interview conducted on 26 September, 2007. Walkways, brochures, Manly Council, 2006). 23 According to Bettina Digby (Randwick Council), in the early 6 Sydney Morning Herald, 22 July, 2008. stages of development in Australia, planning and land subdi- 7 See Booth (2001:29-40). vision often took place outside Australia. There were cases 8 Ocean baths are tidal swimming pools often built on a rock where land subdivision was done in places beyond coastline. platform at shores of New South Wales. See Marie-Louise 24 Two years prior to the Great Coastal Walk’s official open- McDermott, ‘Ocean baths’, Dictionary of Sydney, 2011 (http:// ing, community volunteers and the Sydney Coastal Councils www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/ocean_baths). Group began a project called ‘Walking Coastal Sydney’, 9 Bondi-Bronte Walk is considered the oldest part of the coastal producing detailed route maps and a website. Walking events walk route. The information here is according to Camille were organized by the Walking Volunteers for the opening Kelly, Waverly Council (see chapter 3). in partnership with the Federal and state governments and 10 See Land and Property Management of New South Wales harbour authorities. Brochures of Walking Coastal Sydney, (2009), p. 12. In Victoria State, 95 % of land within 30 me- 1-9, the Walking Volunteers, are also available for downloads ters from the high watermark is still reserved as public land (www.walkingcoastalsydney.com.au). (Keynote address by Dr. Michaerl Gourlay, History of Coastal 25 In 2007-08, 61.4% of the Australian population was found to Engineering in Australia, 17 July 2000, the 27th International be either overweight or obese. See the website of Department Conference on Coastal Engineering, Sydney, New South of Health and Ageing, Australian Government (http://www. Wales (http://www.saveourspit.com/No_Terminal/history/his- health.gov.au/internet/healthyactive/publishing.nsf/Content/ tory.htm). overweight-obesity). 11 The route for the survey was determined through a master- plan by the state (Sydney Metropolitan Regional Recreation REFERENCES Trails Framework, 2005) as well as guide maps published 1) Booth, D.: Australian Beach Cultures: the History of Sun, by each council (Bicentennial Coastal Walkway by Pittwater Sand and Surf, Frank Cass. Co., 2001. Council; Manly Scenic Walkway by Manly Council; The Har- 2) Land and Property Management of New South Wales: A bour Walk-Rushcutters Bay to Rose Bay, The Harbour Walks- Guide to Searching New South Wales Land Title Records, Rose Bay to Watsons Bay, and The Coast Walk – Christison December 2009. Park to Inner South Head by Woollahra Municipal Council; 3) Morikawa, M., Narumi K. and Hisashi T. : A study on realiza- Dover Heights to Vaucluse Federation Cliff Walk and Bondi tion of the Sea Walk (NAGISA-KAIDO)- existing conditions to Bronte Coast Walk by Waverly City Council; Randwick and improvement policy of water front in Osaka Bay area, City Tourism-Coastal Walkway by Randwick City. All coun- Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan, No. 29, 1994. cils distribute brochures with guide maps excluding Pittwater 4) O’Brien, K.: Sydney's Best Harbour and Coastal Walks, Syd- which provides information through its website alone). ney Morning Herald, 2006. 12 Due to obstacles such as port facilities, Harbour Bridge and 5) Ono, K., Ando, T. and Lea, J.P.: A proposal for pedestrian housing at shores around Sydney Harbour, as well as military space planning along coastal front of Okinawa Prefecture, facilities and Sydney International Airport to the south of Ma- Okinawa Prefectural Foundation for Claims Regarding U.S. roubra Beach, the coastal walk route in these sections make Acquired Assets Grant Series, No. 31, 2008. use of more public roads. 6) Sydney Metropolitan Regional Recreation Trails Framework, 13 Although there are no academic studies, a guide-book intro- Final Report, prepared for the Department of Infrastructure, ducing coastal walk routes covering a total length of more Planning and Natural Resources, New South Wales, Hasell than 200 kilometers easily accessible in and around Sydney is Pty. Ltd., 2005.3. available. See O’Brian (2006). (Received November 22, 2011)

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