Paul Weston: Gold Coast dog owners want more off-leash areas on beaches

THE Glitter Strip’s pets are in the dog house. Locked up all day, they are causing a stink in luxury high rise apartments, writes PAUL WESTON. But what’s happening down below on the beaches?

Gold Coast dog owner Phillip Deed with his dog Ace is pushing for more flexible hours to allow pets on beaches. Photo: Steve Holland

The Glitter Strip’s pets are in the dog house. Locked up all day, they are causing a stink in luxury highrise apartments. But what’s happening down below on the beaches?

Your columnist this week wrote a report about a Surfers Paradise body corporate struggling to police pets after painters refused to complete repair work for health reasons.

What could not be published to support the article were the photographs of the apartments taken by tradies. They would have stopped you eating your breakfast.

On a balcony several floors up, the white tiles were grey with grime and beside a dog bowl was a pile of dog faeces. The tenants were busy working back to back shifts.

The view, if you could enjoy it, looked magnificent with a wide blue stretch of the Nerang River below and north to the beaches.

Gold Coast dog owner Phillip Deed on his regular walk with dog Ace at Miami Beach. Photo: Steve Holland

Further south on the white sand early every morning is passionate dog owner Phillip Deed, with his Labrador “Ace”. He and other dog owners are talking about animal management laws.

“We need more areas to exercise dogs and the parks are often not lit well enough and not big enough to exercise your dog properly,” Mr Deed says.

“Many dogs need a good 30-minute brisk walk – not going around and around in circles. Many parks have adjoining houses so this can be a disturbance to residents. And there are often not enough parking spaces.”

In winter where first light is not until after 6am, the 5am many regular dog walkers give up on the parks and their pets are miserable.

The solution being put forward by Mr Deed, which has gained support among pet owners he talks to every day, would result in council opening up more off-leash sections on beaches.

The Coast has only three off-leash dog exercise areas covering three kilometres of beach – at The Spit, Tallebudgera Beach and Palm Beach. Even on a leash, you cannot take your pet within 200 metres of a flagged area.

Stella Booth and Flicka enjoying the off-leash dog area at The Spit. Pic by David Clark

“I think it is fair enough that more beaches should be open for dogs especially early in the morning from five to seven and later in the afternoon, perhaps from four to six,” Mr Deed says.

The Coast has at least 55,000 registered dogs with owners paying a $118 annual fee. Another 6500 pets are thought to be unregistered.

Mr Deed suggests the council use some of the payments from dog owners to provide more benefits rather than focusing on the policing of off-leash animals.

“There needs to be more locations where free dropping bags are supplied. Currently between north Burleigh and Burleigh there are a few locations but between Miami and Broadbeach there is nothing,” he says.

“Council could suggest that owners be responsible with ownership by exercising their dogs appropriately. But it is difficult to do this without making open public space available to all.”

The off-leash section at The Spit — Photo: David Clark

Dog owners have begun using a beach just north of the Grand Hotel at Biggera Waters which has opened up for a few hours in the mornings and afternoons.

“So why can’t other areas be the same,” Mr Deed says.

That filthy highrise balcony would be much cleaner, the owner having more nearby options to walk their pet before their 7am shift. A dog’s life on the Gold Coast could become paradise.