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Thursday, 10 June, 2021
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Jetties despair By Danielle Kutchel The community of Warneet is furious at a lack of action from Parks Victoria to fix the town’s two jetties. Both jetties are currently partially or fully closed by Parks Victoria, ostensibly for safety reasons. The Warneet North Jetty is listed on the Parks Victoria website as being “closed to public access until further notice”. The website goes on to state that “recent assessments have discovered significant safety concerns for the structural capacity of the jetty”. Meanwhile, the website lists Warneet South Jetty as “closed to pedestrians and vessel berthing” at the timber jetty head due to “significant safety concerns for the structural capacity of the jetty”. But residents say it’s been a year since the closures with no action taken since to repair the structures – and they’re demanding answers. Commodore of the Warneet Motor Yacht Club, Alex Stroud, said residents had been told by Parks Victoria that representatives would work with the town to reinstate the jetties. But since their closure, Parks Victoria representatives have cut away a section of the North Jetty. “So instead of attempting to repair the jetty, they came down with chainsaws and cut away a section of the jetty,” he explained. With closures on both jetties, residents worry about their potential use in a bushfire evacuation point. “Several residents use these jetties in their fire escape plans,” Mr Stroud said. “Residents feel uneasy knowing the jetties are closed in a one-road-in, one-road-out town, we could be in the same situation as Mallacoota.” Mr Stroud said he has requested information about the structural integrity of the jetties “numerous times” and has been told by Parks
years,” he said. He also isn’t convinced that reports into the condition of the jetties by Parks Victoria engineers actually exist. Mr Stroud said he had asked for the assessments, but had been denied access to them as they’re considered “high risk and high consequence”. He’s since lodged a Freedom of Information request to obtain the engineer’s reports, the
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engineer’s recommendation that the jetties be closed and the permission that was granted to remove a section of the North Jetty. “It came as a great shock and concern when the jetties were closed. No one in Warneet was pleased that they were closed for repair,” he said. “Those structural failures don’t appear overnight, it takes years of neglect.” Continued page 10
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Victoria that there is no capital in the budget to fund the necessary repairs. He said Parks Victoria had assured him that the organisation conducts “a rigorous inspection regime” of the structures – but Mr Stroud questions how they jetties could have fallen into such an extreme state of disrepair with annual inspections. “Preventative maintenance goes a long way, they have not maintained [the jetties] in recent
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Alex Stroud and locals protest the closure. 239790
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