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sterile " Landes " of south-western France have become fixed, and now bear forests of 
pine, which are the source of the valuable turpentine industry. These developments 
date from 1789, and the results are an illustration of the triumph of science over the 
forces of Nature. The state of the French Landes, to be referred to presently, was the 
result of centuries of neglect and of a special geographical situation, and I trust that no 
part of the coast of Australia may be neglected for so long a period. Nevertheless, the 
New South Wales coast provides many examples of shifting sand-dunes, and postpone- 
ment of treating them is but leaving others to reap the whirlwind. 
I. THE COASTAL PROBLEM. 
It would be difficult, and perhaps impossible, to ascertain the money loss which 
has accrued to the Government, to municipalities, and to private citizens in the suburbs 
of the cities of Sydney and Newcastle alone, in combating the sand-drift nuisance. 
Many private landowners, trustees of parks and cemeteries along other parts of the 
coast, have sand encroachments which they are interested in fixing. I have for a 
number of years taken an interest in this question, and again draw public attention to it, 
because I think the nuisance can be abated, provided a little expenditure be incurred 
and work accomplished be not allowed to be undone through neglect. As instances of 
what has been done locally in fighting the sand-drifts, I give notes in regard to two 
well-known cases. 
1. Newcastle. 
On the 14th October, 1886, was assented to " An Act to authorise the resumption 
of certain portions of land situate in the Parish of Newcastle and County of Northumber- 
land for the purpose of enabling the Government to arrest, as far as possible, the further 
deposit of sand thereon, and to reclaim for public purposes and dispose of the said lands 
as hereinafter provided." During the year 1887 Mr. H. Czerwonka, an engineer of the 
Public Works Department, set to work to carry out the process of reclamation, his 
operations consisting of cutting down, trimming, and sloping banks along the sea shore, 
removal of existing old fences, shifting of sand, erection of brush fences and of new 
boundary fences, and planting with grass. From first to last a considerable sum has 
been spent on this work; numerous trees and shrubs, chiefly from the State Forest 
Nursery at Gosford, have been planted in the reclamation; whilst a resident gardener 
caretaker was maintained for a number of years after the planting staff had been 
withdrawn. The area is now a public park. 
2. Bondi. 
Mr. G. R. Cowdery's work in dealing with the sand nuisance in the vicinity of the 
tram terminus is referred to below. I would also draw attention to the late Mr. W. A. 
Smith's paper on the " Treatment of Drift Sand, as applied to the Bondi Sand-dunes " 
(read before the Sydney University Engineering Society, 27th October, 1902). This 
recounts the valuable work which has been begun by cutting off the supply of sand 
trom the ocean by Mr. Smith, tho, District Engineer. 
