 Electricity arrived in 1939 and town water was connected in 1980.Large scale rutile mining took place over the hill at Putty and Killcare beaches in the 1960s and stripped the beach of its large sand dunes and destroyed many native plants, molluscs and animals.Miners had agreed to revegetate the area which they did with the noxious pest bitou bush ("Chrysanthemoides monilifera"), which the various land care groups are now trying to eradicate.