January 2025 News Update
Support a safe, motorised vessel free zone
on Aldinga and Sellicks beaches
Respond to the City of Onkaparinga “Your Say” for Motorised vessel exclusion zone Aldinga Beach / Sellicks Beach . https://yoursay.onkaparinga.sa.gov.au/motorised-vessel-exclusion-zone-aldinga-beachsellicks-beach
Or email mail@onkaparinga.sa.gov.au attention Gill Birch, Community Safety.
Consultation is open until 28/02/2025.
Council is responding to a 2023 local petition requesting restrictions of jet skis on local beaches. Council also recognises that motorised vessels can pose a safety risk for swimmers and other recreational users.
Friends of Willunga Basin (FOWB ) Committee supports option D:
A motorised vessel exclusion zone from Morgan St, Aldinga Beach – Sellicks Beach Rd, Sellicks Beach.
We support option D because it significantly increases public safety for swimmers and other water-based recreational activities along the entire coastline from Morgan St, Aldinga Beach to Sellicks Beach Rd, Sellicks Beach. Option D will be the easier to monitor and enforce because it eliminates any confusion over the location of enforced motorised vessels restrictions and creates an all-inclusive and transparently safe zone.
The proposed restrictions will require that all jet skis and motorised personal watercraft can only launch and retrieve from the two designated locations, north and south of the exclusion zone. Current restrictions on speed and operating times will remain, i.e. a 4 knot speed restriction applies until the motorised vessel is 200 m from the low water mark before moving along the coast at speeds greater than 4 knots.
Further, the FOWB committee encourages all respondents to the City of Onkaparinga “Your Say” for Motorised vessel exclusion zone Aldinga Beach/Sellicks Beach to urge that Council consider another option:
To enforce a motorised vessel exclusion zone for all beaches from Moana Beach to Sellicks Beach inclusive.
This option optimises the public safety of swimmers and those people who undertake non-motorised water-based recreational activities along this stretch of highly utilised coastline.
Beyond safety issues, FOWB’s key concerns relate to adverse effects on residential amenity, including noise and environmental pollution. The current noise pollution emitted by water based motorised vessels along this coast area is detrimental to the wellbeing of all recreational beach and water users. Allowing loud unrestricted activities on the beach causes significant disruption to the daily lives of nearby residents and to their continued quiet enjoyment of the neighbourhood, noting that in a quiet rural / urban environment, sound can and does travel considerable distances. Several of the FOWB committee members can testify to this disruption personally, being residents living within 1 km of the Aldinga, Silver Sands and Sellicks Beaches.
These issues will only escalate; Council must address the increasing use of motorised vessels with appropriate restrictions.
Proposed Variation to Wave Pool, Tuit Rd Aldinga
The proposed wave pool development on Tuit Rd was approved by the Council’s Assessment Panel in May 2024. The proponents sought a variation to the original approval, allowing construction of five 27 m highlight towers around the wave pool and operation of the wave pool and two bars until midnight. In late December 2024, this proposal went out for public consultation. FOWB’s submission called on the Panel to refuse consent to this variation on account of the adverse effects on the surrounding neighbourhood, while also highlighting that a number of matters associated with the initial decision are yet to be resolved. Some 300 members of the local community were involved in another submission in opposition.
FOWB encourages members to attend and show support for this opposition at the Council Assessment Panel meeting which we expect to occur sometime in March or April 2025 (we will advise members when we know the date).
Port Willunga North Coast Park
City of Onkaparinga have recently provided an update on the Port Willunga North Coast Park project:
https://yoursay.onkaparinga.sa.gov.au/port-willunga-north-coast-park/january-2025-update
In late 2024, private property owners constructed fencing along their western boundaries across the present trail around the gully. Signage has been placed to warn of the hazards should people choose to use the informal gully path and signage has also been installed at entry points to advise there is no through access. Council are continuing to negotiate access for the path to traverse private land around the gully, which may involve a right of way easement. Construction is dependent on finalisation of land access negotiations, however Council estimate a start midway through 2025.