HI,

( PLease note, This is what I have come across, and it is my view only and tack from it what you think and place your own judgement, Thank you )

Some of you are aware of this proposal, but for those who have not been sailing recently there is a boat ramp proposed at the mouth of cooks river.

This boat ramp will utilise the northern car park that we use in Northerlies.
It will be an expansion of the current car park, to of coarse allow for the ramp access and trailer parking.
At present there is a current boat ramp as we are aware further up stream of the mouth of Cooks river, The boating traffic in its current location is fine and manageable by us windsurfers, I thought this location was ideal not affected by wind and calm water for launching from.
However being in a developed area with homes surrounding the ramp it probably is not ideal anymore.
Therefore this new boat ramp will be more convenient for the boaties and jet skis.

Some of the points that I and I assume you all would agree is that the increase of boating activity because of the new and larger boat ramp will of coarse be a pain, not only the increase of traffic but we will not be able to freely track back and forth as we do now without avoiding boats and jet skis, Extra chop, more people on the beach, we may have restricted launch area due to the extra people also enjoying the beach which we all are allowed to do, parking will be less due to increase of people. I feel that many of us may even be push out of windsurfing if you are the ones who only sail weekends in summer and on the occasional free time you have, you and for that matter I will experience times of avoiding collisions and being unsafe with boats zoning past at close proximity this will unfortunately become more prevalent once the new ramp is built, some days it may even be unsailable.

The boat ramp on Foreshore drive is large and in summer months is overcrowed, this proposed ramp at Cooks river will alleviate Foreshore drive congestion of about 40%, this is my assumption, therefore the increase of boating traffic out of cooks river will have a problematic affect on the water.
The car park will be utilised by family and friends of boat users which is fine we all need to enjoy the water, also the beach in front of the car park will be utilise more by the boaties beaching their craft cleaning there catch of the day also more swimmers of the boaties and of coarse jet skis and friends will use the beach more because boat ramp and carpark is all accessible to the beach without driving elsewhere. (We all have the right to share and enjoy the beach of coarse)

I do not own a boat but do have friends who do and occasionally attend a day of fishing with then and probably will be using the new ramp at some stage, I am not against the proposed Boat ramp, however there could be other location where other water uses do not use the water in front and the boating and fishing community can use without any affect to others. This is a State Funded project I think and Rockdale Council have been invited to oversee the Proposal and the management of the facility once Built..

So what now, do we or can we have a say, well yes. I have spoken to Rockdale council. In particular Had a friendly conversation with Colin Mable, Executive Engineer City Infrastructure Rockdale City Council. His comment was they did have studies around the bay to determine the best location for this new boat ramp and it was concluded that this site best suited the needs of the parties involved, primarily the South Sydney Amateur fishing association and the recreational fishing alliance which were the drivers for this project.

He suggested to forward a brief explanation to Beth.Andean@worleyparsons.com Until 2 April. of what we do on the bay and how we utilise that corner of the bay and how this will be problematic for us.

link hope they work it shows the proposed boat ramp image.


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