❓ The government will proceed with building boat launching facilities at Monck Head in Coral Bay, primarily for smaller recreational craft, following environmental assessments and community concerns regarding alternative locations. The decision on including a service jetty for commercial operations will be made after further consultation.
AnsweredQoN 52Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
What action has the government taken to ensure that there are adequate and accessible boat launching and service facilities in the Coral Bay area? Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for his question. I can see that you, Mr Speaker, are vitally interested in this beautiful and important place of Coral Bay. As you are well aware, Mr Speaker, there has been an ongoing dispute over the past decade about the location of boating facilities at Coral Bay. We have as many opinions about where these facilities should go as we have people in Coral Bay. In 2004, following an extensive Environmental Protection Authority assessment of a number of options, we resolved that we would build boat launching facilities, fundamentally for small boats, at Monck Head as north Bills Bay was deemed to be environmentally unacceptable. A great deal of controversy and concern arose in the local community, particularly among commercial boat operators who raised a number of issues they wanted examined. In order to work through their concerns - I think they are genuinely held concerns - I said that we should appoint an eminent independent expert, Emeritus Professor Alistair Gilmour, to look at all the issues to see whether we could devise a facility that might be acceptable in north Bills Bay, or, indeed, to look further afield. The response in Professor Gilmour’s report states very clearly that it is not possible to build an environmentally acceptable boat facility of any type at north Bills Bay. We are ruling out north Bills Bay. The professor recommended that a broader reassessment be made of the provision of boating facilities at Coral Bay following a study on the nature and pattern of boat usage at Coral Bay. He stated that if there are imperatives for proceeding with the Monck Head facility in the immediate future, the facility should be limited to a launching ramp for smaller recreational craft. There is an imperative and need. There is a dangerous mix of boats, swimmers and snorkellers that the government is not prepared to allow to continue, and coral is being damaged as boats go over the reef. The government will proceed with the boat launching facility at Monck Head. Whether we delete the service jetty that services the commercial operations will be determined with the local community over the next three months. The government is very clear that progress will be made. We must build a boating facility. The decisive action the government has taken, in terms of both planning for Coral Bay and developing the water and sewerage facilities, has really borne fruit. I think most members would have seen the fantastic Hilton - not Paris Hilton, I am sorry, Mr Speaker - development that is being proposed for Coral Bay. It is an international-class facility for the international-class venue.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I thank the member for his question. I can see that you, Mr Speaker, are vitally interested in this beautiful and important place of Coral Bay. As you are well aware, Mr Speaker, there has been an ongoing dispute over the past decade about the location of boating facilities at Coral Bay. We have as many opinions about where these facilities should go as we have people in Coral Bay. In 2004, following an extensive Environmental Protection Authority assessment of a number of options, we resolved that we would build boat launching facilities, fundamentally for small boats, at Monck Head as north Bills Bay was deemed to be environmentally unacceptable. A great deal of controversy and concern arose in the local community, particularly among commercial boat operators who raised a number of issues they wanted examined. In order to work through their concerns - I think they are genuinely held concerns - I said that we should appoint an eminent independent expert, Emeritus Professor Alistair Gilmour, to look at all the issues to see whether we could devise a facility that might be acceptable in north Bills Bay, or, indeed, to look further afield. The response in Professor Gilmour’s report states very clearly that it is not possible to build an environmentally acceptable boat facility of any type at north Bills Bay. We are ruling out north Bills Bay. The professor recommended that a broader reassessment be made of the provision of boating facilities at Coral Bay following a study on the nature and pattern of boat usage at Coral Bay. He stated that if there are imperatives for proceeding with the Monck Head facility in the immediate future, the facility should be limited to a launching ramp for smaller recreational craft. There is an imperative and need. There is a dangerous mix of boats, swimmers and snorkellers that the government is not prepared to allow to continue, and coral is being damaged as boats go over the reef. The government will proceed with the boat launching facility at Monck Head. Whether we delete the service jetty that services the commercial operations will be determined with the local community over the next three months. The government is very clear that progress will be made. We must build a boating facility. The decisive action the government has taken, in terms of both planning for Coral Bay and developing the water and sewerage facilities, has really borne fruit. I think most members would have seen the fantastic Hilton - not Paris Hilton, I am sorry, Mr Speaker - development that is being proposed for Coral Bay. It is an international-class facility for the international-class venue.
I thank the member for his question. I can see that you, Mr Speaker, are vitally interested in this beautiful and important place of Coral Bay. As you are well aware, Mr Speaker, there has been an ongoing dispute over the past decade about the location of boating facilities at Coral Bay. We have as many opinions about where these facilities should go as we have people in Coral Bay. In 2004, following an extensive Environmental Protection Authority assessment of a number of options, we resolved that we would build boat launching facilities, fundamentally for small boats, at Monck Head as north Bills Bay was deemed to be environmentally unacceptable. A great deal of controversy and concern arose in the local community, particularly among commercial boat operators who raised a number of issues they wanted examined. In order to work through their concerns - I think they are genuinely held concerns - I said that we should appoint an eminent independent expert, Emeritus Professor Alistair Gilmour, to look at all the issues to see whether we could devise a facility that might be acceptable in north Bills Bay, or, indeed, to look further afield. The response in Professor Gilmour’s report states very clearly that it is not possible to build an environmentally acceptable boat facility of any type at north Bills Bay. We are ruling out north Bills Bay. The professor recommended that a broader reassessment be made of the provision of boating facilities at Coral Bay following a study on the nature and pattern of boat usage at Coral Bay. He stated that if there are imperatives for proceeding with the Monck Head facility in the immediate future, the facility should be limited to a launching ramp for smaller recreational craft. There is an imperative and need. There is a dangerous mix of boats, swimmers and snorkellers that the government is not prepared to allow to continue, and coral is being damaged as boats go over the reef. The government will proceed with the boat launching facility at Monck Head. Whether we delete the service jetty that services the commercial operations will be determined with the local community over the next three months. The government is very clear that progress will be made. We must build a boating facility. The decisive action the government has taken, in terms of both planning for Coral Bay and developing the water and sewerage facilities, has really borne fruit. I think most members would have seen the fantastic Hilton - not Paris Hilton, I am sorry, Mr Speaker - development that is being proposed for Coral Bay. It is an international-class facility for the international-class venue.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I thank the member for his question. I can see that you, Mr Speaker, are vitally interested in this beautiful and important place of Coral Bay. As you are well aware, Mr Speaker, there has been an ongoing dispute over the past decade about the location of boating facilities at Coral Bay. We have as many opinions about where these facilities should go as we have people in Coral Bay. In 2004, following an extensive Environmental Protection Authority assessment of a number of options, we resolved that we would build boat launching facilities, fundamentally for small boats, at Monck Head as north Bills Bay was deemed to be environmentally unacceptable. A great deal of controversy and concern arose in the local community, particularly among commercial boat operators who raised a number of issues they wanted examined. In order to work through their concerns - I think they are genuinely held concerns - I said that we should appoint an eminent independent expert, Emeritus Professor Alistair Gilmour, to look at all the issues to see whether we could devise a facility that might be acceptable in north Bills Bay, or, indeed, to look further afield. The response in Professor Gilmour’s report states very clearly that it is not possible to build an environmentally acceptable boat facility of any type at north Bills Bay. We are ruling out north Bills Bay. The professor recommended that a broader reassessment be made of the provision of boating facilities at Coral Bay following a study on the nature and pattern of boat usage at Coral Bay. He stated that if there are imperatives for proceeding with the Monck Head facility in the immediate future, the facility should be limited to a launching ramp for smaller recreational craft. There is an imperative and need. There is a dangerous mix of boats, swimmers and snorkellers that the government is not prepared to allow to continue, and coral is being damaged as boats go over the reef. The government will proceed with the boat launching facility at Monck Head. Whether we delete the service jetty that services the commercial operations will be determined with the local community over the next three months. The government is very clear that progress will be made. We must build a boating facility. The decisive action the government has taken, in terms of both planning for Coral Bay and developing the water and sewerage facilities, has really borne fruit. I think most members would have seen the fantastic Hilton - not Paris Hilton, I am sorry, Mr Speaker - development that is being proposed for Coral Bay. It is an international-class facility for the international-class venue.
I thank the member for his question. I can see that you, Mr Speaker, are vitally interested in this beautiful and important place of Coral Bay. As you are well aware, Mr Speaker, there has been an ongoing dispute over the past decade about the location of boating facilities at Coral Bay. We have as many opinions about where these facilities should go as we have people in Coral Bay. In 2004, following an extensive Environmental Protection Authority assessment of a number of options, we resolved that we would build boat launching facilities, fundamentally for small boats, at Monck Head as north Bills Bay was deemed to be environmentally unacceptable. A great deal of controversy and concern arose in the local community, particularly among commercial boat operators who raised a number of issues they wanted examined. In order to work through their concerns - I think they are genuinely held concerns - I said that we should appoint an eminent independent expert, Emeritus Professor Alistair Gilmour, to look at all the issues to see whether we could devise a facility that might be acceptable in north Bills Bay, or, indeed, to look further afield. The response in Professor Gilmour’s report states very clearly that it is not possible to build an environmentally acceptable boat facility of any type at north Bills Bay. We are ruling out north Bills Bay. The professor recommended that a broader reassessment be made of the provision of boating facilities at Coral Bay following a study on the nature and pattern of boat usage at Coral Bay. He stated that if there are imperatives for proceeding with the Monck Head facility in the immediate future, the facility should be limited to a launching ramp for smaller recreational craft. There is an imperative and need. There is a dangerous mix of boats, swimmers and snorkellers that the government is not prepared to allow to continue, and coral is being damaged as boats go over the reef. The government will proceed with the boat launching facility at Monck Head. Whether we delete the service jetty that services the commercial operations will be determined with the local community over the next three months. The government is very clear that progress will be made. We must build a boating facility. The decisive action the government has taken, in terms of both planning for Coral Bay and developing the water and sewerage facilities, has really borne fruit. I think most members would have seen the fantastic Hilton - not Paris Hilton, I am sorry, Mr Speaker - development that is being proposed for Coral Bay. It is an international-class facility for the international-class venue.
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