I have only lived in Lake Cathie for a short time. I don't have all the right answers as a painter but I do know that brown is not popular colour. I can tell by looking at the foreshore of Lake Cathie, where the present and past bridges once stood, it has been closed to the sea longer than it has ever been open.

Everybody has a story to tell about the lake being open all the time for years when they were kids, pointing the finger at who and what's to blame. If this was the case, shouldn't we have either living or dead mangroves around the edges of the lake? You would expect them to be covering the slow moving shallow water, just like the Hastings and Camden Haven rivers.      

What we have here is paperbark wetland and it creates a different type of ecosystem. A breeding ground for prawns and fish that can't escape too often and protection for other wildlife. We do have a safe and accessible swimming area with only sand underfoot with no mangrove shoots and you still can catch bigger fish in the teabag coloured water.

Just maybe the problem is CATHIE not being pretty enough!

I do know that if this was a stand of trees with a few koalas on a hill, threatened by development what would we be doing? Writing on social media and telling the local council to chop it down or preserve it?

All around the world, wetlands and estuaries are being destroyed faster than rainforests. When Lake Cathie is closed off to the sea it becomes one of the largest brackish estuaries on the east coast . A spawning ground for millions of different frogs, water skimming spiders, fresh water killer prawns with large needle like nippers that are mainly found in streams. It's a place for a variety ducks and black swans from our dry interior to migrate to.  They then can get relief from the heat - just like us. 

Just maybe we want to open it too quickly and too often. With rising sea levels we may end up not having the choice.

It's a complicated ecosystem that we still don't fully understand, but I do believe we can have the best of both worlds and a truly unique area for families to enjoy. 

Remember - the estuary is not just here for people.  

Leave it be - don't try and fix something that's not broken!

Darin Rousevell

Lake Cathie