Aerial photographs taken last week show water has broken through the peninsula, 700m from Barnes Rocks, creating a second lagoon unknown to residents and Great Lakes Council.

Spokesperson for the Myall River Action Group, Gordon Grainger said the lagoon is proof wild storms and south-easterlies are forcing a passage through the stretch of coast.

He said the breach is nature’s way of creating a new river mouth after the eastern (natural/shortcut) and western channels, the main passages for incoming and outgoing tides, have all but silted up.

“Nature is doing what she is entitled to do and take things back to normal. She has been quietly creating her own entrance.”

Cr Len Roberts said if a new river mouth is forged it would be costly to remedy.

“What we need to assess is whether this is a good thing and if not find an answer or solution.”

He said council will notify the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, which began a 12-month study into the river’s tidal movements in September.

“The major concern is that it [the breakthrough] opens up the river to wave and tidal actions that could erode the back and eventually all of Tea Gardens.”

However senior natural research officer for the DECCW, Neil Kelleher said evidence suggests the area was already a wetland which may have been forging the second lagoon for some time.

“The whole of the Winda Woppa peninsula is really dynamic and sand is constantly moving. There are changes occurring all of the time.”

Asked if the breach could eventuate into a new river mouth Mr Kelleher said it was difficult to determine but if a new mouth were to be forged the estuary would “find the path of least resistance.”

While it is unknown how long the new lagoon has been forming, Mr Grainger said satellite photographs taken by Google Earth in 2004 don’t show the lagoon or crest in the peninsula which has eroded 70m of access road.

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