Sandon Point sits between the townships of Thirroul and Bulli in what are regarded as being the northern suburbs of Wollongong. (In fact it's a reasonable hike to Wollongong proper.)

The area along the point has been developed and there is a large expanse of land in between which is currently being developed, which we can see here. A community action group is opposing it.

The group's web site is headlined with the usual paint-by-numbers protest statements:
- It's a sacred aboriginal site, as most development sites are even if the sacredness has to be invented.
- It has significant European settlement historic value, as most development sites do even if the history was a bullock train driver stopping to relieve himself at a tree on the site in 1835.
- It's an area of "significant ecological diversity unmatched in the Illawarra region", as every single development site which is within 100 metres of a blade of grass is generally claimed to be.
- But despite its ecological diversity it's also an area with more contamination than downtown Chernobyl and if you so much as dig up a teaspoon of soil it'll blow all over everyone and we'll all be dead, won't anyone think of the children???
- Wolf! Wolf! Oh wait, wrong fairy tale.

As is usual, all of these claims are couched in vague terms which are rather light in terms of detailed specifics. (For clarity; I have nothing against legitimately organised action groups. I do have something against the ones where it appears to me that they have their own axes to grind and/or hidden agendas. But that's just my personal opinion.)

More mundane, and indeed more objectively valid grounds for objection are buried, if mentioned at all, deeper in the site. Water management (particularly what will happen with runoff water since the area has been known to flood) is one, but more importantly the increase in population which will put a further strain on (at the very least) transport services which are already stretched to the limit. Try crossing Lawrence Hargrave Drive on a Sunday unless you're near a pedestrian crossing. Try even pulling out into the traffic flow should you be lucky enough to spot a place to park. Look at the train timetable, and the paucity of trains which share the line with coal trains. Yes, the greater Sydney area needs housing but needs it in places where there will be the resources to deal with it. So while I may not share the clichéd high moral ground arguments of the action group, I do agree with their final conclusion for those mundane, objective reasons. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's any chance of it being stopped.

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