Fears for threatened hooded plovers block skydivers from dropping in on Hindmarsh Island, Goolwa and Port Elliot

An adrenaline-powered company’s dreams for Hindmarsh Island, Port Elliot and Goolwa have been squashed after it was told it won’t go down well with an endangered local.

A skydiving business’s bid to offer revellers an adrenaline rush plummeting towards South Coast beaches has been stymied amid concerns about endangered birds.

SA Skydiving had applied to Alexandrina Council to add Sugars Beach at Hindmarsh Island, and a reserve at Barrage Road in Goolwa, to their landing places, and for their permission to jump at Basham Beach, Port Elliot, to be extended to a wider range of times.

But consultation on the issue found most respondents opposed the plans, raising worries about potential effects on sand dunes and wildlife and a perceived risk to public safety.

SA Skydiving doing tandem jumps over the Fleurieu Peninsula. Picture: SA Skydiving

A hooded plover chick. Picture: Sue and Ash Read

Investigations also uncovered legal advice that jumps over the beaches conflicted with the council’s obligations to protect endangered birds – in particular, the threatened hooded plover.

A report to councillors says staff have told the business its use of Basham Beach, adjacent the Ratalang Conservation Reserve, is “challenging” and will not be allowed from January.

SA Skydiving owner Greg Smith said he did not believe skydivers posed any bigger threat to the plovers than other beachgoers, dogs or foxes.

The company also has an airfield it uses for skydiving near Langhorne Creek, but he said about 75 per cent of people requested to jump at Basham Beach.

“It’s quite disappointing, when small businesses are struggling so much getting out of Covid,” Mr Smith said.

“Jumping on the beach happens all the way around Australia – that’s what the public want. “The beach is everybody’s.”

Mr Smith said it was already difficult for businesses to survive in the current economic environment, marred by uncertainty caused by the pandemic and travel restrictions.

A hooded plover at Port Willunga during the breeding season. Picture: Sue and Ash Read

SA Skydiving doing tandem jumps over the Fleurieu Peninsula. Picture: SA Skydiving

The council has told the company further investigations will need to be completed next year on potential new skydiving locations, before it revisits the proposal. Options will be presented to councillors before July 2022.

“We’re just finding it very slow and to say ‘you’ll have to wait until next year,’ – we don’t have a bank full of money we can just survive on,” Mr Smith said.

The council report said following legal advice, staff found “the locations as identified are not appropriate without further investigation”.

Mayor Keith Parkes said locals were “very much against” some of the suggested sites.

He said the area’s environmental sensitivity, and in particular, the risk to the plovers, caused the most concern.

“If you’re coming down with a parachute at certain times of the year, you wouldn’t be able to see where they are,” he said.

“There’s also areas around Bashams and the Murray Mouth of cultural significance to the traditional owners and we have to respect that as well.”

Nationally, plovers are threatened with extinction, with 7000 remaining in Australia.

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Originally published as Fears for threatened hooded plovers block skydivers from dropping in on Hindmarsh Island, Goolwa and Port Elliot