“The Kalang River foreshore is a highly valued community space due to its assets such as the historic boathouses, wharf structures and ship parts, and is enjoyed by our local community and visitors every day,” Ms Pavey said.

“I am pleased to see this funding for the foreshore works will go towards helping mitigate bank erosion in the Atherton Drive precinct and will ensure the local history of the area is retained for local tourism and the business community.

The NSW Government will also provide $15,000 as part of the Public Reserves Management Fund 2016/17 towards a precinct plan to guide future management of the boathouses and river foreshore. 

The plan will ensure consultation with the community, lease holders and local council are undertaken on the best solution for the cabins.

“This is an exciting step for Urunga … the boathouses could be such a feature again,” Ms Pavey said.

“There are many ideas in the community about the way forward with these historic buildings and I think we need to reach out to every part of it, but we also have to be somewhat self-sufficient. We need to find a way to support the redevelopment and that is probably going to be through leasing the cabins for long-term lease so that people can ,make investments and fix the cabins themselves – government does not have those resources to be doing that type of work.”

The funding allocation is part of the NSW Government’s $18 million 2016/17 Public Reserves Management Fund Program which provides grants and loans annually to support the development, maintenance and protection of public reserves.

For more information on the program visit www.dpi.nsw.gov.au