Assault charges after beachfront erosion fight turns violent

Community tensions over the erosion of a Central Coast beach erupted in violence when an elected councillor and a beachfront home owner allegedly became involved in a physical altercation that resulted in police laying charges.

Residents of the picturesque beachfront suburb of Wamberal have been locked in a bitter feud – on one side, beachfront home owners are campaigning for a seawall they say will save their homes, on the other side, the group Save our Sand argues a wall will destroy the beach for the rest of the community.

That feud reached new heights on Tuesday when, just after 3pm, police were called to the beach after reports of a violent altercation.

Warren Hughes, a beachfront home owner, as well as Central Coast councillor and Save Our Sand campaigner Corinne Lamont, and her husband, Mark, were all involved in the confrontation near Pacific Street.

Hughes and the Lamonts have different views of what happened during the spat. Both parties gave police statements.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Lamonts were each charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company and affray. They were granted conditional bail and will face Gosford Local Court on September 4.

According to Hughes, the Lamonts were filming his property and were asked to stop before the pair allegedly attacked him.

The Lamonts allege they were several doors down from Hughes’ property, filming unauthorised works taking place on the beach outside his property, when he “tackled” Mark to the ground. The Lamonts claim they were both victims of assault, and several men in high-vis clothing ran to aid Hughes in the alleged assault.

Hughes alleges he was the victim. He provided a photo of injuries he claims were a result of the alleged attack.

A police spokesperson said minor injuries were reported, but those involved declined medical treatment.

Corinne Lamont told the Herald she has “never been more petrified in my life” and rejected allegations that she or her husband were the aggressors. Her husband said the ordeal was “really scary” and left him with injuries to his neck and back.

Hughes said he now feels unsafe stepping outside his home.

A council spokesperson declined to comment, given police are investigating.

Pro-seawall home owners who were not directly involved in the altercation say the ugly incident is a result of frustration boiling over in the community. Wamberal Protection Association president Chris Rogers said home owners are becoming desperate as more and more of their homes crumble into the sand with no real protections.

Fellow pro-seawall home owner Ray Awadallah said that instead of keeping the peace, Central Coast Council is “fuelling the fire” by not facilitating more coastal protection works.

“You pay all these rates and half your land is in the sea, and you can’t do anything about it,” he said.

Awadallah said behaviour by the public at council meetings has become “disgusting”, with anti-seawall campaigners “swearing and shouting”. Lamont says she feels threatened at council meetings by some of the pro-seawall members in the public gallery.

The debate has also played out on social media, where those seen as undertaking inappropriate works on the beach are promptly filmed and their actions shared in anti-seawall groups. Hughes is the subject of two stop-work orders by Central Coast Council after he was spotted using heavy machinery to move large rocks onto the beach in front of his property.

A council spokesperson said an injunction will be sought in court if the works continue.

Wamberal and The Entrance North have been battered by several damaging weather events, including in 2020, when huge swells resulted in major land slippage and land began to fall into the sea.

The foundations of homes were exposed and backyards fell away into the sand.

A proposal for a 1.4-kilometre seawall along the beach was supported by many home owners, who banded together to submit a development application to the council. That remains under assessment, but the plan appears dead in the water after Premier Chris Minns said he didn’t think a wall was a good idea.

He told the community that sand nourishment would be his preference. Minns met the mayor and chief executive of the council on Friday, but has yet to commit to any funding for a specific project in Wamberal.

A spokesperson said the government has repeatedly called on council to finalise its Coastal Management Plan to put in place a framework to manage risk along the coastline long-term.

A council spokesperson said they have requested a “whole of government response” to the erosion and told the premier they want a “longer-term solution to this ongoing but now critical situation”.

Minns said in July: “It’s not something that you can just click your fingers and fix. There’s a reason no one did anything about this for 10 years and that is that street and that community has been under threat from coastal erosion for a long time.”

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