New Sunday closure at Malabar Headland track
ACCESS to the Malabar Headland National Park walking track has been cut to just two weekend days a month by the neighbouring rifle range. And some locals are not happy.
Southern Courier
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ACCESS to the Malabar Headland National Park walking track has been cut to just two weekend days a month by the neighbouring rifle range.
The Boora Point track skirts around the range, which is run by the NSW Rifle Association.
The track had been closed to the public for shooting on Saturdays and the third Sunday of every month. But from this month it is now also closed on the first Sunday as well.
On Sunday, July 1, walkers headed out in the sunshine only to find a range employee asking them to turn back.
The Courier received a flurry of letters of complaint and now Kingsford Smith federal Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite and Maroubra state Labor MP Michael Daley have condemned the move.
“There are only a handful of shooters who have monopolised this very special site,” Mr Daley said.
“Locals have been demanding more access to the Headland for years yet the Liberals responded by signing a secret 50 year lease that locked our community out.
“We have every right to be angry because this is just one ongoing disappointment.”
Mr Thistlethwaite said rifle range bosses should work with the government to find a new site.
“It’s ridiculous, what’s the point of a national park if members of the public can’t access most weekends,” he said.
“There are a lot of working families in our community who are being denied the opportunity of important leisure time at the weekend.”
The NSW Rifle Association signed a 50-year lease for the site with the Federal Government in 2016. This allows it to operate up to five days a week.
“It’s an emotional issue,” an association spokesman said. “We’re not trying to antagonise the locals, all we want is a place to practise our sport and there is nowhere else to do it. We are trying to make it work for both everyone.”
He said the range was the only location in the Sydney basin where elite Commonwealth and Olympic athletes could practise their sport.
He said there was also a possibility there could be further weekend closures given the demand.
“It’s a bit like the argument about Sydney Airport, everyone wants it to move, especially the residents who have moved in, but who was there first,” he said.
As well as the new Sunday closure the track will be closed for shooting from Monday to Friday next week.
The Courier received a number of letters following the July 1 closure.
“Sunday was a beautiful clear, crisp winter’s day. Good day for a walk — or so we thought,” one wrote.
“How ridiculous is it that the recreational sport of a few takes precedence over the enjoyment of many from the local community and further afield. As full time working local residents I feel we should be able to use the coastal walk on the weekends.”
Claire Bettington, from Friends of Malabar Headland, said she had mixed feelings about the closure.
“We’re ambivalent about it. We want people to be able to use the national park. However, we don’t want them to abuse it — and many people are. People take their bikes and their dogs in there. Our first priority is to the environment.”
The group regularly visits the headland to carry out essential maintenance and bushcare work.
She said the NSW Rifle Association regular updates the group and said members had warned them about the additional Sunday closure.
“With the extra closure there is good and bad.
“It is stopping people going in on the weekends but on the other hand people aren’t using it properly.
“Many of the paths are not properly formed yet, the National Park ran out of money. There is a lot of erosion happening.
“We love this place we’ve been looking after it for 32 years. We want to see people use it but we don’t want to see people abuse it.”
FIND US A NEW SITE AND WE’LL GO
“We’re not bloodthirsty people, we are just members of the community like everyone else,” NSW Rifle Association chairman John Baxter said.
Responding to the additional Sunday closure, he stressed the group was not out to anger the public, adding that they have the right to close the track off more regularly if they wanted to.
“We realise people have the right to go in the national park and they can when we are not shooting,” he said.
Shooting on the site dates back to the mid-1800s and, in 2016, the association was handed a 50-year lease of the site by the Federal Government.
Mr Baxter said the additional Sunday closure of the track was due to one of the conditions of the lease, to increase usage of the range.
But he said the association would be happy to move on if another location in the wider Sydney area was found.
“We wouldn’t object if somewhere else suitable was found, but that hasn’t happened,” Mr Baxter said. “But there is not much you can do with this land anyway, it is contaminated.”
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