Thanks for sharing. I've submitted a response in opposition to the proposal. Windsurfing and kiting at 'Wello' is iconic - both for sailors and spectators.
Not sure if I'm right, but the gazetting of the area appears to relate to a safety audit conducted by Surf Life Saving Qld in 2015. Apparently as a result of increase in incidents of "stringers" and the increasing use of the area by swimmers, the audit recommended providing a surf lifesaving service, which requires the area to be gazetted. At least that is what I'm getting from the post from one of the councillors from 2015 on Facebook
www.facebook.com/councillorwendyboglary/posts/tomorrow-is-our-fortnightly-general-meeting-this-is-the-statutory-council-meetin/399499580237918/
It would be useful to see what the audit actually said about public safety concerns. The proposed area runs 400 metres from the shoreline at high tide (from what I can tell)
From my dealings with Brisbane City Council be very concerned and act immediately with your own petition and make a lot of noise to the local media. Council always has an agenda to push and that can come from interest groups who have the local members ear. Always take minutes of conversations and establish the extent of any proposal they have in writing. Our council tried to completely change a park where we live next to and based this on 600 people petition that we had no knowledge of and had no involvement in the proposal. We came back with a 1600 person petition and front page stories in the local paper. I chased down every person in council and managed to find the planning team who is conveniently hidden away from public knowledge and who had already drafted all the changes well before the community consultation process to establish the park design had even started.
The quicker you act the more chance you have of having them not go down their path of thinking. I bet you that they already have full documentation of the proposed changes already to go.
They mention safety and a swimming reserve and that to me sounds alarm bells.
Quick read of vandos link shows this will end windsurfing at wello for those that like the western side of the sand bank.
I'm reading this that sailboards/kites not permitted within 10m of bathing area as designated by FLAGS? Where does the outer flag limit start?
Disregarding affects to sailboards I reckon council are crazy if they go ahead with this, by designating they are essentially announcing safe an un-netted area known to be frequented by reasonably large sharks with water clarity not suitable for life guards to maintain adequate shark watch as they do on surf beaches.
Weekends now I tend to use any other location, the point is just too busy unless after 3pm. School holidays could be a problem, thats half of the year.
& should they close the whole area as per map I foresee rather a few kites & sailboards disregarding the council just as the kites have done for the last 10 years.
When flags are setup its usually 400m from high tide. You cannot launch or sail anywhere in that area.
the sls police the area and can confiscate gear I thought.
I guess ill be seeing more people at my local. Already a few because council completely messed up car parking.
So who is writing this MSQ or council?
400m out from flags? Seriously if there is anyone 400m out from flags anywhere a passerby is a blessing. If you are coming in from sea how do you know where flags are, council & beach cop wannabes over write maritime law? Wasn't this how the kites got around the councils previous stupidity, that they had no jurisdiction below high water mark?
& the one lifeguard is going to start confiscating gear, yeah good luck to them. To my knowledge life guards there had not had issue & had contact details of some of us to sort any conflicts.
400m is funny when ive seen big sharks in a pack feeding several times where that photo begins close enough to the shore that you could touch them & again within 200m along the bank. Considering life guards started when some got stung by jellyfish & attempted legal action against council how much will rate payers have to fork out when the inevitable happens? Oh but we go into the water in the same spot, I don't know any windsurfers or kiters that would legally go council if we were bitten, the jellyfish debacle shows that. & 15 seconds is my average waterstart time, not flopping around in the water for 10+ minutes.
This should be linked to the kites, BrisSUP (no more BOP racing for them at wello) & fishing forums (kayaks would be the largest secondary users of that area).
The proposed bathing area as set out in the survey map is at odds with the State Government guidlines on bathing reserves which states that bathing reserves extend 200m out perpendicularly from defining flags on the beach.
Thompson Beach at Viccy point is already a bathing reserve, but this doesn't stop windsurfers sailing there.
We have a number of alternatives:
1) Oppose the creation of the bathing reserve
2) Support the creation of the bathing reserve but negotiate with the council to limit its size so that it doesn't effect our current windsurfing activities
3) Do nothing
My view is that option 2 is our best course of action, because it formalises what we already do.
I suggest that we, as a windsurfing community, propose that the bathing reserve be restricted to an area defined by flags set say 75m apart on the beach in front of where the surf lifesaver currently sets up and extends 75m into the water from the waters edge.
This would allow sailboarders, sups canoes and kayaks to enter and exit the water to the east of the eastern flag. Most of us already stay more than 75m offshore when sailing the bank.
Sailboarders have safely co-existed with bathers at Wello for years. We already stay clear of bathers when they are in the water.
I think the whole of GB is a 'bathing reserve'. Has been for as long as i can remember. Doesnt seem to be an issue. Although there is a large group of swimmers that regularly swim parallel to the bank late in the arvo. Gotta really watch for them coz theyre RIGHT where everybody gybes. Can be tricky late in the day with the sun in your eyes.
wow...have there been some recent near misses with bathers that has perhaps inspired this?
That is cutting off the prime launch and gybe area on the east side of the reserve.
The difference in regards to bathing reserves is that it has a life guard on duty weekends & school holidays.
This is just natural progression, I & others have always been friendly & welcoming to life guards there, approached them early that if there is anything they consider to be a problem to let us know, since we are a close group we can fix it. In the event this does occur it'd likely be council officers not the life guards enforcing. There has been some incidents between kites & swimmers.
I support a bathing area, imo they need to do it differently, Moreton Bay had enclosed bathing areas & wading pools for a reason.
Sad when you consider other places in the world that councils have set aside as windsurfing reserves.
I did some digging but I'm not an expert on local laws.
bathing reserve extends up to 1 kilometer to sea from the flags However 200m is the accepted distance as beyond that is considered limited to swimmers.
Digging further I found a map of the proposed reserve for wello and it is an area 300mx326m..
Are any of you southside blokes in a WQ affiliated windsurfing club? If so, have you got your club secretary/president to fire something back up the tree to Windsurfing Queensland? I bet WQ are not even aware.
We had a similar public submission type situation up here with Moreton Bay Regional Council wanting to know which recreational areas were being used by which recreational user groups. Windsurfing wasn't even on the list of user groups; and Windsurfing Queensland wasn't aware till I flicked them an email to say I'd responded to council. We don't have a club in our area to push info back to WQ or push back against MBRC if necessary, so we're on our own. Similar situation with a very short opportunity to make a submission too.
Select to expand quotePaddles B'mere said..
Are any of you southside blokes in a WQ affiliated windsurfing club? If so, have you got your club secretary/president to fire something back up the tree to Windsurfing Queensland? I bet WQ are not even aware.
We had a similar public submission type situation up here with Moreton Bay Regional Council wanting to know which recreational areas were being used by which recreational user groups. Windsurfing wasn't even on the list of user groups; and Windsurfing Queensland wasn't aware till I flicked them an email to say I'd responded to council. We don't have a club in our area to push info back to WQ or push back against MBRC if necessary, so we're on our own. Similar situation with a very short opportunity to make a submission too.
Wq is already onto it :)
Select to expand quotebc said..Paddles B'mere said..
Are any of you southside blokes in a WQ affiliated windsurfing club? If so, have you got your club secretary/president to fire something back up the tree to Windsurfing Queensland? I bet WQ are not even aware.
We had a similar public submission type situation up here with Moreton Bay Regional Council wanting to know which recreational areas were being used by which recreational user groups. Windsurfing wasn't even on the list of user groups; and Windsurfing Queensland wasn't aware till I flicked them an email to say I'd responded to council. We don't have a club in our area to push info back to WQ or push back against MBRC if necessary, so we're on our own. Similar situation with a very short opportunity to make a submission too.
Wq is already onto it :)
You might want to let BrisSup guys know too Simon, the more clubs on board the better.
Hi everyone my name is Ian Greenleaf and I learned to windsurf at Wellington Point in August 1979 and attended the first meeting of the Queensland Sailboard Club in the same year at the Bulimba Sailing club....windsurfing was a big thing and "Wello" was the spot to windsurf as was "Margate".....
It is really important to protect our sailing areas because councils will just classify Bathing reserves to avoid legal hassles of court battles from perceived "extreme water sports" such as Paddle boarding
or Sail
boarding..."old terminology" or Kite Boarders...
....as treasurer of the Gold Coast Windsurfing Club that was formed to stop a "six knots all vessels" at our Broadwater and successfully lobbied car parks and rigging areas for our Members I would encourage everyone here who gives a **** about Wello to swing into action immediately, complacency will lose us this gem of windsurfing
Thanks Everyone for bringing this to my attention (it is actually the only way we will find out about these issues, councillors don't track us down and ask for our opinion unfortunately).
I have made a submission from WQ and welcomed further involvement in the decision making process. Although the Redland Council can be hard nosed on these issues I have tried to use logic to put our point forward and I have had success in the past with this approach in achieving the shared parking zones for boat trailers and cars throughout the Redlands and Wellington Point.
The submission outlines the long (40 year) history of windsurfing at Wellington point and the fact that the location, weather we sail in and nature of our craft self regulates the interaction between bathers and Windsurfers and I've evidenced this through the perfect safety record we have at Wello.
I will keep you informed of any feedback as it comes to hand. In the mean time keep spreading the word and make your own submissions as numbers count in this situation.
Regards, Scot Farley (President WQ).
I've signed the petition. The proposed area is unnecessary large. It's the only spot to go in a Westerly. It'd be a real shame to loose it.
I'm disappointed that no one is even slightly concerned in the windsurfing community on this forum...
Select to expand quotegreenleader said..
I'm disappointed that no one is even slightly concerned in the windsurfing community on this forum...
I filled out the reply in opposition to the bathing reserve, what else do you suggest we could do?
Could maybe organise a free try windsurfing day to raise awareness of the proposed change.
Online form done....WTF wants to swim there ??!!! The council is suggesting that a place full of bull sharks, stone fish, jelly fish, sharp rocks that doesn't even have water a large portion of the day is a good swimming spot?!!
Maybe organize a big Sunday day of protest every wind/kite/sup/kayak person in Brisbane turns up ....cause a traffic jam, chaos, join forces , bring gear rig up, lots of color, be a big visual scene, invite all the media, they love a good protest story..especially if there is some good vision, make a big public and media song and dance, otherwise the fun police will win!
^+1. Ive never sailed there but thats a great idea Jonesy. So ALL us sail crew have somewhere close to home to sail.
Jonesy if we lose our ability to launch/sail there then maybe this could be on the cards.
Not just Brisbane folk either, sailing at wello point there has been regular sailors from northern nsw through to bundaberg & out to toowoomba, especially since wello is one of the few safe spots to sail in a westerly.
There's usually only two or three people "swimming" there and about twenty or more more kites and windsurfers. Majority rules, ban the swimmers. This whole thing stinks. Why do bureaucrats always have to meddle? Can't they just fob off the odd whingers?
Here's another point. Windsurfers tend to launch and go, where as a lot of the kite guys tend to stay close to the beach where the people play in the water.
The maritime regulations say to stay 60 metres from swimmers or reduce speed to six knots. This go slow rule works for windsurfers. I'm not sure about kites though. They can be pretty scary to the average bather even when stationary...
Don't get me wrong I reckon kitesurfing is fantastic. It's just that some of the inexperienced guys can be a danger to themselves and others when in a crowded situation.
On behalf of the Gold Coast Windsurfing Club, I have expressed our strong disapproval to this proposed amendment.
