Beach Camping

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Environment. What plans does the government have to deal with the side-effects from the ever-increasing popularity of beach camping? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: Since COVID the popularity of beach camping in my electorate has gone through the roof, and the obvious side-effects that come with it are causing significant harm to our wildlife, including the dunes, and the dumping of rubbish and waste is becoming an increasing problem.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:24): The member highlights a serious challenge. We are an unusual state in the extent to which we allow people to drive on our beaches. It is something that many South Australians treasure and enjoy, but what we have seen is that in some areas the increase in recent years—particularly through COVID—has seen pressure on some beaches that has been hard to sustain.

An example is Wauraltee Beach, in the member's electorate, where the council has for some time been concerned about not being able to manage the impacts. I understand there were some 450 vehicles over the Christmas period. You would have to think that means 1,000 to 2,000 people over that period using that beach, digging fire pits, toileting, going through dunes and so on.

My sense is that there has been a shift in community sentiment where, while locals have long enjoyed being able to get out onto beaches, they are now seeing that people are coming from other places and leaving a fair mess behind and therefore looking to see some tightening up of the way in which they are managed.

A few years ago I was on the Natural Resources Committee, chaired by the Member for Heysen, and we undertook an investigation into the impact of driving on beaches in South Australia and came up with a number of recommendations which my department, and also the Department for Infrastructure and Transport, have been working through. You will have seen that there has been some modification in the speed limits on some beaches, for example, that have been brought in by that department—or possibly by the police. It might be better to refer to that portfolio.

From the perspective of the Department for Environment and Water, what we have been undertaking is initially over last summer—and, again, it will happen over this summer—more compliance on beaches where driving is not permitted already, but there has been some custom and practice, or just perhaps an absence of signs, or those signs have been blocked, where people have been out in national parks, driving on beaches where it is not allowed. So we have increased the information provided, the advice being given to people, and also the signage to help guide people away from the beaches in those times.

We have also identified some other beaches where driving is allowed and camping is allowed, but locals have raised concerns and Wauraltee is an example of that. We are currently working with the council, as well as with user groups, on how we might restrain that impact—whether it is about visiting but not staying overnight—and we expect before too long to be in a position to present a shared view. I think we have given one briefing already to the member and we will be seeking another briefing before long to bring him up to date with the arrangements.

I want to be clear that we are not, as a government, opposed to the idea of people enjoying themselves in a variety of ways, including being able to take a car out on a beach where it is appropriate. What we do need to do is recognise that where the impact has become heavier than previously, that there is a community sentiment that is asking us to have another look at the way in which we regulate that.

There is also increased focus on the protection of the hooded plovers in particular, the beach birds that lay their eggs in shallow—we would not even call them nests; it is just a little bit of a hollow in the ground that they pop some eggs into. They are highly vulnerable to dogs being off a lead and to cars driving. We are trying to find that right balance and we will make sure that local members are kept up to date as we work through that.