Owen Jones, the owner and operator of Mr Boom Boom Fireworks, has been part of the organisation of the event since he was approached by the late Col Waller in 2014 while Col was the head of the Shoalhaven Heads Business Chamber.

"Col knew what was going to happen with the bypass - he was a very smart guy," Mr Jones said.

"He owned hotels in the area, and he had major concerns (about the bypass).

"He said we had to come up with an event that would wow everybody and put us on the map. I then said we should do it all on the river.

"We had our first event in 2016, and the shorebirds first came up as an issue in 2017."

Mr Jones said himself and delegates from both Shoalhaven City Council and the National Parks and Wildlife Services met on site at Shoalhaven Heads to discuss the issues relating to the nesting shorebirds.

The South Coast Register has seen emails confirming these meetings took place.

"We met there on December 12 and December 14, 2018, and spent a couple of hours walking around the headlands," Mr Jones said.

"We identified where the critical habitat was, but the indication that I was given was that if we stayed a fair distance away, there would be no problems moving forward.

"It was an ongoing approval given I didn't go near the critical areas and did a colour co-ordinated show with no salutes.

"It was never a no-noise agreement, Nationals Parks told us the birds were more resilient than people think."

Mr Jones told the South Coast Register there was no mention of any new controversy over the nesting shorebirds in any of his correspondence with the council until he received an email after 4pm on December 23, 2021, eight days before the planned event.

"When I got the email, I couldn't get in contact with anyone at the council," he said.

"I had received an email on December 21, and I'd replied to that with a display checklist and a copy of the aquatic licence from Transport for NSW.

"The lady I was dealing with replied 'Hi Owen, can you please provide a map with the specific location of the barge, including a firing site'.

"There was no mention of the birds, so in my mind I thought this was formality, just ticking the boxes - I thought they just wanted to check the final information and we'd be good to go."

He believes the event could have gone ahead safely if he'd been contacted with concerns earlier than December 23.

"It's the lack of talk about it at any stage that gets to me," he said.

"This year was going to be safer than ever, we'd put a barge together that would have put the fireworks further away from the critical area.

"At no stage was I asked where I was putting it - the way it was told felt like they thought the fireworks were going to be right on top of the birds.

"There's no foot traffic near the critical areas, they're not walking through the sand dunes at night, they're up on the foreshore celebrating New Year's Eve.

"We could have easily put staff at the start of the walkway to stop people from going down to the sand dunes.

"If they had just talked to us, we could have sorted this out without biting the bullet. We had to stand down six staff, and we spent $9000 on fireworks for the night.

"The emails I was receiving in the lead up seemed to just be ticking boxes, there were no concerns raised until December 23."

Mr Jones was also disappointed because the 2021 fireworks would have been in memory of Col Waller, who sadly passed away last year.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service said they were concerned the fireworks would draw people to the nesting sites.

"Little Terns are listed as endangered in NSW," an NPWS spokesperson said.

"There are less than 500 breeding pairs in the State. Little Terns typically nest on sand spits and islands at the mouths of estuaries. These are highly dynamic environments and so Little Tern nesting locations vary significantly each year.

"At the time of the proposed event, it was estimated one fifth of NSW's Little Tern breeding population was nesting at Shoalhaven Heads.

"NPWS raised concerns that people drawn to the beach in the dark could trample eggs or chicks, and suggested closing the beach or moving the fireworks away from the nesting site.

"More than 40 fledglings have bene observed at Shoalhaven Heads this year. This is nearly six times the highest number of fledglings observed at this site over the past 20 years."

Shoalhaven City Council was contacted for comment, but did not respond.