Thursday, 4 May 2023

Adjournment

Lower Glenelg River camping

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (17:09): (151) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is for all the canoe camps along the lower Glenelg River to be reopened; for the installation and reinstatement, with investment, of floating pontoon launch pads to protect the riverbanks at those camps and also access to toilets; and further, to take action to fix significant errors with the campsite booking system. I met with lovely Ali – Alicia Rentsch – of Paestan Canoe Hire just last week when I was on my mobile office trail down in the south-west of the electorate of Lowan. Ali is running a fabulous canoe company. They take a lot of school groups up and down the lower Glenelg River, and she really does do a fabulous job in making sure that young kids are able to get out and about and enjoy the lower Glenelg in a way that really helps them to connect with nature, to be productive and to really get out and about and enjoy what our environment has to offer.

However, there have been so many issues recently. A number of the camps have been closed down with absolutely no notice. This has meant that schools have not been able to continue with their bookings or, because the camp sites are closed, it is too far a distance for young children to be able to utilise the river. When young kids are canoeing it can be quite hard, especially when there is a headwind, and when these camp sites are closed it means that it is just too much for particularly primary school aged children to be able to enjoy this really important activity. It is a great school camp. You get on the canoe, camp for a couple of nights, spend some time with your mates and get some good life skills as well. There are also significant issues around the camp booking system. You can only book one student at a time in the canoe camps. Ali has to advise people, ‘Well, yes, we know that you can’t book 12 at once.’ You have to actually go in one by one by one, which is exceptionally challenging for everyone who is trying to book. In fact they think, ‘Well, I can’t get on the river; I won’t be able to do that.’

I would like to just thank so much the members of this chamber from the Labor side who are spending a lot of time listening to how good it is on the lower Glenelg River. I hope they are down in that part of the state soon. We have also had Deutschers camp closed with no notice at all. There are significant issues. While Parks Victoria appear to be shutting down use of the river on the lower Glenelg, which is in a very controlled wide bay, by an accredited canoe operator, at the same time Ali is having people come to her own private property because she has got Crown river frontage, so it would be people coming to access the river in another section which is completely uncontrolled and without any toilets. I urge the minister to look at this area to make sure all these canoe camps are reopened and that we fix the booking site. (Time expired)