Victor Harbor’s new Granite Island causeway will threaten little penguin colony, former mayor says
A new causeway is planned to improve tourism on Granite Island – but one of its key attractions, the penguin colony, could be driven away by noisy construction.
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Works to build a new Granite Island causeway could threaten the region’s vulnerable little penguin colony with extinction, the former mayor says.
Graham Philp, the chairman of advocacy group Save Granite Island’s Penguins, says his organisation wants the State Government to go back to the drawing board on its plans to build a new causeway between the island and the mainland.
Mr Philp said impacts from the works – particularly construction noise and dredging – would threaten the penguin’s ability to breed and feel safe in the area.
“All that change in environment could stop them from breeding or stop them from coming back in (to their nests) so their babies starve to death and are prone to predators,” he said.
The State Government has budgeted $20 million towards the new causeway, to be complete by late 2021.
It follows the popular horse-drawn tram being suspended for five months last year, following concerns about the existing 1864-built causeway’s structural integrity.
Mr Philp is also worried about the impacts of an increase of traffic on the island through coaches, able to access the area through the new, wider causeway, and a push to bring cruise ships to the area.
“I don’t think the colony will survive that long,” Mr Philp said.
His group wants the Government to reconsider an option to upgrade the existing 1864-built causeway, which he said would be less intrusive.
Mr Philp said there were only 20-30 penguins found on the island during the latest census. Victor Harbor Mayor Moira Jenkins said the current causeway was too damaged to last long into the future – even with repairs.
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She said the causeway’s connection with Granite Island would be away from the penguins’ breeding site and Government departments were discussing potential impacts on the animals during construction.
“The penguins are really important to Victor Harbor but in order to see the penguins you have to have a causeway that will see us into the future,” Dr Jenkins said.
Work on the project is expected to start in the middle of the year.
A State Government spokesman said the construction of the new causeway should not impact the penguin colony.
Infrastructure Minister Stephan Knoll said the causeway, after it was rebuilt, would once again be the “jewel in the Crown of Victor Harbor’s tourism industry”.