Meanwhile WACRA members sought an update on the proposed legislative changes to permanently restrict the use of jet skis in the exclusion zone between the River Torrens at Henley to Grange Road, noted in the Aquatic Activity Licence issued by Charles Sturt Council. By September 2016, the SA Minister for Transport, Stephen Mullighan, had prepared a set of variation regulations for cabinet consideration. It went through. The formal document is noted under Harbors and Navigation (Restricted Area Henley Beach) Variation Regulations 2016 (no. 241 of 2014 published in the Gazette 13.10.2016, page 4009). The Weekly Times Messenger reported (26 October 2016): ‘Jet-ski ban finally sticks. State Government steps in to end yearly debate over zones’. It took 16 years of constant WACRA activity to reach a satisfactory outcome. The community may now feel safer in the water – at least between 1 December and 31 March. Saving Henley Dunes Bernadette Cranwell and Lisa Redman
We are local residents who live on the seafront. We were talking over the fence one day about the damage caused by the latest storm to hit our beach. We shared a concern about sand loss which had swept over Esplanade roads. Storms cause sand to move from south to north, carrying precious beach sand. Our dunes were being denuded. Other people in our neighbourhood had similar concerns. ‘What can we do?’, was the question asked by this local community. We learned that our local council, the City of Charles Sturt, had sand replenishment and vegetation management plans in place for West Beach and Henley South. This included the area surrounding the Torrens Outlet where sand mining and erosion had been a longstanding problem. Saving the dunes at Henley Beach was another problem. We heard that the council had commissioned a report to explore ways to save Henley Dunes. When we approached council about the report, we heard that a decision had already been made; fences were to be built on existing sand dunes, parallel to the Esplanade, at a cost of $75,000. Reading the commissioned report, we realised that other options to save the sand had not been considered. We discussed this report with Jim Douglas, president of WACRA at that time, and were advised by him. We carried out further research and discovered that there were other ways to reduce sand loss. Based on our research, we wrote a report supplying evidence that vegetating the dunes was a better and cheaper way to manage sand and protect Henley Dunes. In the presence of WACRA members, we made a deputation to the full council in February 2018. There was a lot of dissent. One councillor argued that our plan would be a good thing because involving the community was considered to be a positive and the fact that we were volunteers was an extra bonus. This argument worked in our interest. Eventually, council approved our revegetation plan, subject to applying and gaining a grant for $5,000, an amount we had asked for originally to set up a working group. No doubt saving a large sum of money helped councillors to make this favourable decision.
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