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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-09-21 Daily Xml
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Tennyson Dunes

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber of the progress towards developing the Tennyson Dunes section of the coast park?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:05): I thank the honourable member for her totally unexpected and most excellent question. On Friday last I released the path alignment for the Tennyson Dunes Discovery Trail. This 1.5 kilometre section of the proposed coast park that will run from North Haven to Sellicks Beach traverses 22 hectares of ecologically significant coastal dunes. This area is a designated conservation reserve, and the dunes are the last true remnant of the original Adelaide metropolitan coastal plains.

In September 2015, I made Tennyson Dunes a dedicated coastal conservation reserve under the Crown Lands Management Act 2009. The reserve is 12 kilometres north-west of the city, near locally historic Estcourt House, and holds rare and regionally significant plants, bird life, reptiles and invertebrates. The dunes provide the best remaining habitat in the Adelaide area for coastal reptiles, such as the painted dragon, and rare coastal plants, such as the cushion fanflower.

Tennyson Dunes were recently named Yaitya Worra, in Kaurna meaning 'original sand', in recognition of the fact that they are the most significant pre-European coastal dunes left along the metropolitan coastline. These dunes are not only incredibly beautiful and ecologically and culturally important, but they also stand as a reminder of the original dune system that stretched uninterrupted along the Adelaide coast for 30 kilometres, featuring beautiful massive dunes ranging from between 200 and 300 metres wide and up to 15 metres high and stretching up to 200 metres inland at Tennyson.

In recent history the dunes were mined for their sands to feed the glass industry. In response to a concerted public campaign, commenced in about the 1970s, to save this last significant section of remnant coastal dune from development, the state government's Coast Protection Board purchased a considerable portion of the dunes.

Although Tennyson Dunes were saved from development in the 1970s, it was not until 1995 that the Tennyson Dunes Group was established. With other dedicated community groups (such as the West Lakes Kiwanis) and with state and local government support, the Tennyson Dunes Group has been actively involved in conserving and managing these dunes. Funded initially through Coastcare, the group has undertaken activities, including pest plant and animal control, fencing, car park and pathway maintenance and control, nursery construction, propagation of local native plants, revegetation, rare plant recovery, fire prevention, education, monitoring and interpretive signage and, importantly, raising public awareness of the dunes' value.

They have been, and continue to be, an integral part of the development of the trail. The trail will also allow visitors to enjoy a mix of coastal dune and sea view experiences. It will be a low-speed, shared use, environmentally sensitive path that helps protect the valuable coastal dune area, and will be disability accessible.

The process of the development of the trail has three phases: the first was a concept report with various options for the trail; secondly, a targeted stakeholder engagement process to identify the trail route; and phase three will be the development of a detailed route construction design and costing for the trail.

We have completed the concept report and the stakeholder engagement process and settled on the trail alignment. The stakeholder engagement process was undertaken earlier this year and involved YourSAy engagement, forums and a range of meetings with local government, residents, the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board, Tennyson Dunes Group and other community interest groups.

The objective of the stakeholder engagement was to understand preferences for the alignment of the trail and the reasons for those preferences. Based on the information collected via the engagement activities, several options were developed and negotiated, and a map of the final trail alignment and the results of the stakeholder engagement are available on the YourSAy website, I am advised.

All those who participated in the engagement process were sent a follow-up email advising them where to access the final documents and, while there were differing views of course, and differing priorities for the trail alignment, the final proposal balances the environmental, the social and economic issues associated with constructing a coast park through a conservation reserve.

The final alignment minimises ecological impacts of the trail as it deliberately avoids areas known to be of ecological significance and allows for the greatest area of uninterrupted dune structure. It has also been designed to slow users through a longer and less direct alignment, helping to establish the area as a destination rather than a thoroughfare. This commitment to collaboration with stakeholders has ensured the best outcome for the environment and the community and the project's next phase will be a detailed design phase in collaboration with local stakeholders before construction begins.

On a completely unrelated matter, Mr President, I note that it's unlikely that the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. David Ridgway, will ever ask a minister again to rule something in or rule something out, given that today he has failed his first test and refused to rule out that he has been out there actively undermining his party leader and has refused to rule out that he has been out there—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Minister, the Hon. Mr Hunter has the floor.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: And has refused to rule out that he has actively been out there trying to find a replacement for a frontbencher in the Legislative Council on the opposition benches.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Brokenshire.

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