SAMPHIRE COAST

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:50): I rise today to speak about the southern portion of the Samphire Coast. The Samphire Coast has been described as the coastal portion of Gulf St Vincent ranging from the St Kilda side of the Barker Inlet right up the gulf and around to Ardrossan on Yorke Peninsula. Community concern expressed to me about this area is limited to the coastal span from St Kilda up to Light Beach.

A reasonable balance needs to be struck between the widely-held desire to protect the coastal environment in general and that of maintaining and/or improving the established public recreational amenity of the coast. Several measures have been taken at various locations along the coast to control, limit and exclude public access in order to protect the environment. On the other hand, it needs to be recognised that there has been a significant loss of recreational amenity along this part of the coast.

A significant portion of this area comes under the jurisdiction of the District Council of Mallala. There were two motions moved by the District Council of Mallala at the Local Government Association AGM on 24 October in relation to these matters and both were passed by that AGM. The first motion was:

That the Local Government Association works collaboratively with the State Government to facilitate measures/strategies that ultimately protect reserve areas from degrading activities of off-road vehicles (e.g. additional coastal 'rangers' as in other states, provision of licence facilities in hot-spot areas; and have all officers of the South Australian Police Force educated/informed that roads and/or road related areas in section 44B of the Road Traffic Act 1961 applies to any government or council reserve).

The second motion was:

That the Local Government Association seeks assistance from the state government for:

the provision of private or public off-road vehicle facilities in areas where required, and

adequate patrolling by state government authorised officers ensuring improved monitoring of known problem areas where off road-vehicles activities are undertaken in an unlicensed and uninsured location.

The objective of the first motion is to protect sensitive coastal and other reserves from irresponsible activities involving off-road vehicles and to ensure that all officers in SAPOL are aware that reserves are designated as road-related areas and are prepared to use section 44B of the Road Traffic Act to fine offenders and/or impound vehicles for damage to infrastructure.

The objective of the second motion is to facilitate the provision of private or public off-road vehicles licensed facilities appropriately covered by limited liability legislation. This would ensure appropriate specified standards for a controlled environment and rider/driver safety.

That last point is particularly interesting to me because some years ago I worked very closely with officers of the Yorke Regional Development Board in trying to find a way in which the Port Gawler off-road vehicle park could continue to exist and provide a service for the people who wish to ride off-road vehicles in an area close to Adelaide. Unfortunately those moves failed and that facility has been closed due to the fact that it failed to get any government assistance for its liability insurance costs.

I call on the government to work with the District Council of Mallala and the residents of the areas concerned to make sure that people using those vehicles do so in a designated area that can be controlled and that people who use that unique part of the coast of Gulf St Vincent can do so in a way that does not affect the environment but in which their activities are unaffected by unsatisfactory public behaviour.