Beach influx leads to bogged cars, huge traffic bank-ups along South Australian coastline

Regional seaside hot spots are seeing cars bogged on beaches and huge traffic bank-ups spanning kilometres as more people head to the coast.

An influx of boaties and day trippers to our coastal holiday hot spots is leading to cars bogged on beaches and huge line-ups spanning several kilometres, blocking off roadways.

Regional mayors say their local beaches have been hammered by extra people spending time exploring South Australia, rather than holidaying interstate and overseas, along with more people buying four-wheel-drives – but not necessarily knowing how to use them.

At Victor Harbor, Pirate’s Sea Charters owner Rod Ness said cars were lined up over about a kilometre on the weekend to access the boat ramp next to The Bluff, and on Sunday, he had to wait about 1.5 hours to launch his boat.

Extra people were heading to the region to fish for tuna, he said, and the area desperately needed another boat ramp, more carparking and extra pontoons to cater for the demand.

The Beach at Aldinga and Silver Sands is packed with cars on Sunday, January 10. Picture: Morgan Sette

“Victor Harbor is becoming more and more popular,” Mr Ness said.

“People are going down at 2.30 or 3 o’clock in the morning just to get into the line-up.

“I’m worried that if (the) council don’t do something very serious here soon, people won’t come back to the area and spend their money – they’ll go somewhere else.”

Mayor Moira Jenkins said the council had recently made parking improvements and added an extra pontoon, and was considering building another ramp near the local sailing club.

However, she said the current boat ramp was only busy for about six weeks each year and during the winter it “lies empty”.

Alexandrina Mayor Keith Parkes said there were times when three or four cars became bogged at the Goolwa Beach ramp, which was supposed to only be used by four-wheel-drive vehicles.

“Then people can be stuck in traffic for three quarters of an hour,” he said.

“Traffic can bank up … several kilometres up Beach Road.”

Cars trying to get onto the beach at Goolwa on Sunday. Picture: Josh Koop

The council was planning a major revamp of the area, including carpark works, improvements to the roadway leading up to the ramp and the ramp itself, and better signage to help address congestion issues.

Mr Parkes said the problem was exacerbated by people who took 2WD or all-wheel-drives onto the ramp, or didn’t correctly use their 4WD cars.

“I think with COVID, we’re getting a lot more people not going overseas and people are holidaying within their state or Australia instead,” he said of the influx of day-trippers.

“Certainly, we’ve had a lot more people coming down here who have never been here before.”

Peter Symons, at the Aldinga Bay Surf Life Saving Club, said cars were banked for about 300-400m on Sunday, waiting to get down the boat ramp at Aldinga.

“The beach population has definitely been up twofold from last year, for sure,” he said.

“When I looked yesterday there would have been two rows of cars right through from Aldinga to Sellicks Beach.”

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