The European Settlement (European invasion) had a very big impact of the Terrigal and Wamberal area. Before the European invasion occurred, Terrigal / Wamberal had clean, crystal clear water in their natural beaches, high, golden sand dunes, thick, bushy forest that spread all across the hill side and large lagoons and wetlands. The features of the Terrigal and Wamberal area that first attracted the European invasion to that location was the timber on the hillside that they could use for ship building and forestry, the area was close to the ocean which would make it very easy to build and move their ships / boats into the water and there were lovely beaches for tourism and fishing. When the Europeans had settled in Terrigal / Wamberal the population increased due people hearing about this wonderful place, houses and shops were being constructed to attract more tourists.
Humans have impacted on the natural beach of Wamberal by building large houses and residential areas along the coast line of the sand dunes. The sand dunes can not handle the weight of the houses which then causes them to collapse and that ruins the sand and sand dunes and also poisons the sand and water. All the rubble of the bricks and concrete of the house sink in under the sand and it gets left there to rot onto what is now not a natural beach.
The negative aspects of the European invasion of Terrigal / Wamberal are that the settlers cut down and removed a lot of the wetlands and forest areas so there was more room for the new residential areas and tourist attraction locations. Housing, shops, markets and public areas started to crowd the natural aspects of the beautiful area. Although the newly built urban area in Terrigal / Wamberal was not very helpful for the environment, the hotels and tourist attractions that were being constructed attracted more tourists and made many businesses very successful. And the more people that came to visit the area meant that more people could embrace what was left of the natural range of Terrigal and Wamberal.