Shoalhaven Heads river entrance now open, but could it have opened any earlier?

Shoalhaven City Council started pre-emptive work to open the river entrance on Tuesday and worked through Wednesday to cut a pilot channel to the sea through the sandbar.

Intensified waves from the East Coast Low caused sand to be deposited into the channel overnight and on Thursday morning, it was deemed unsafe to continue works.

Around 3pm Thursday, residents and Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley confirmed with the South Coast Register the entrance had since opened.

But with the pressure of flash floods on the horizon in a community that is no stranger to battling natural disaster, residents and Kiama MP Gareth Ward voiced concerns that works should have started earlier.

"What we now have is works done that haven't adequately allowed for the opening of Shoalhaven Heads," said Mr Ward.

"Councillor (Amanda) Findley tries to blame everything from the state government to council policies to the tide when it comes to opening the entrance.

"The reality is the council was able to get Lake Conjola open yesterday. Why is it the residents in Shoalhaven Heads were treated as second class citizens by this council and this mayor?"

Mr Ward contacted the Minister for Emergency Services and met with councillors to push for the entrance to be opened on Tuesday.

Read more: 'Here we go again': How Shoalhaven residents are disaster-proofing their homes

Shoalhaven Heads resident Phil Guy said the community had been calling for early openings of the entrance for a "long time", but added council did their best to mitigate the issue and that mother nature was no match to contend with.

"If the work wasn't done yesterday, they'd be calling for it to be done. Now that work is done, they're saying it wasn't done properly," he said.

"The pre-emptive work that was done yesterday was done at high tide, and it hasn't really had the effect that was desired. In hindsight, it might be some additional works yesterday afternoon ... when the tide was low would have helped. But that didn't occur.

"My personal view is council has tried to do their best to manage this flood. Unfortunately, nature's a very powerful beast and very hard to defeat."

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Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley said there was no point for work on the entrance to have started any earlier as tides could have impacted works and inundated the village.

"What did happen is that early work that had started got messed up by the ocean, and if council goes too early with the work, what can be risked is ocean inundation into Shoalhaven Heads," said Cr Findley.

"We had an astronomical tide and when there's that amount of ocean activity for storms, and an East Coast Low lifts the ocean, combined with the wind, the water can inundate villages if the barrier dune is opened too quickly.

"It's really important that we look after the people at Shoalhaven Heads as best as we can. And it's also equally as important that we look after those that conduct work on behalf of Shoalhaven City Council."

The Shoalhaven Heads entrance can be opened once it hits the trigger level of two metres, pursuant to the Shoalhaven Heads Entrance Management Plan for Flood Mitigation.

In emergency, council can apply to state government agencies to start early work before the trigger level is reached.

Cr Findley took aim at Mr Ward and said he had stirred anxiety in "an already anxious community" and wants governments to take direct action on climate change after the region has been battered by fires and floods.

"He knows better than anybody about what's gone on to create the entrance management plans, because not only was he on council ... he also knows the effort that state government go to in creating those plans," said Cr Findley.

"I'm super frustrated with the state and federal government ... for not taking more direct action on climate change because these are exactly the issues that we're facing now that have been discussed for years.

"We have got so much at stake in the Shoalhaven ... we've got thousands of homes that are all along beach fronts.

"And the state government have walked away from sea level rise policy in the past and really needs to be reviewed."

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