Native title push could lock sailing enthusiasts out of Lake Eyre National Park

The amazing Outback wonder has become the latest battleground in the war over native title rights versus the right of all Australians to enjoy continued access to the outdoors for recreation.

Lake Eyre Yacht Club, previously used as a church, was bought and restored by the yacht club in 2006.

Lake Eyre in South Australia has become the latest battleground in the war over native title rights versus the right of all Australians to enjoy continued access to the outdoors for recreation and relaxation.

At the centre of the battle is the Lake Eyre Yacht Club, an organisation that for years has been pushing the boundaries of what is and isn’t permissible by sailing on the parts of the lake that are navigable.

The existence of a yacht club in the middle of the Outback sounds like the absurdist creation of our dry Australian humour, in a place so dry that the salt lake fills only three times every century, much of it looking more like a desert than a waterway.

But the club attracts a passionate following, not only from locals in the nearby town of Marree but also from interstate and international visitors who make the 800km trek up from Adelaide to see this Outback marvel.

Lake Eyre Yacht Club commodore Bob Backway at Lake Eyre.

The yacht club’s self-styled, plain-talking commodore is Bob Backway, who first goaded the South Australian government in 2011 over its threat to fine him $50,000 for daring to sail on the lake after the local Arabana people were awarded native title rights over the region.

Now, Backway is threatening to do it all again with the South Australian government’s National Parks and Wildlife Service releasing new guidelines this month that would extend limits on activities within the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park.

South Australian Climate, Environment and Water Minister Susan Close is downplaying the impact of the restrictions, telling Inquirer they are simply a reaffirming of the limits on recreation that exist in other national parks that are co-managed by native title holders.

Close says the only extension of bans under the new management plan is walking on the surface of the lake – a moot point, the minister says, given the lake is covered with gypsum that sets like shards of glass – meaning no one is brave enough to walk on the lake anyway.

“Occasionally in co-managed parks like Lake Eyre-Kari Thanda, traditional owners seek to include cultural matters into management plans,” Close says.

“Swimming, driving, boating and landing aircraft are already restricted under National Parks legislation. This would extend to walking on the lake surface if the proposal goes through.

“However, visitors can still enjoy the park and view the lake from designated visitor areas or from the air.

“The proposal for visitors not to enter a sacred cultural site is made both in recognition and respect for Arabana culture, and to ensure the safety of visitors.

“Aside from the cultural considerations, these changes are also about visitor safety.

“The desert environment is extremely harsh, particularly on the white salt lake where it’s easy to lose your sense of direction and get lost.”

Lake Eyre Yatch Club provides a headquarters to local water lovers who have been sailing the lake for more than 70 years. Picture: AAP

Backway isn’t buying it. He has been sailing Lake Eyre for years and is normally based in Melbourne but heads north to sail whenever the water is high enough to make getting out in the boat possible.

He points to the long history of sailing in the area as proof that people have been boating on the lake for decades without rancour. The building that houses the yacht club was constructed in the 1950s by the United Aboriginal Ministry and was used by missionaries as a church with its own visiting pastor.

It was abandoned in the ’80s and fell into disrepair but was bought and restored by the yacht club in 2006, finally giving a headquarters to local water lovers who have been sailing the lake for more than 70 years. Backway says there is evidence the local Dieri people also had boatbuilding technology and sailed the lake before white settlement, meaning the lake’s sailing traditions could date back centuries.

He fears this draft management plan could be an attempt to impose a stricter set of rules on use of the lake, putting Lake Eyre in the same category as Uluru, former rock-climbing sites in the Grampians and the pending ban on boat rides through Horizontal Falls in the Kimberley.

Only this week, Backway travelled to the Oodnadatta Track to see a new fence that has been built to keep visitors out, and says a locked gate has even been installed on one of the public roads.

Backway says he and many locals believe the beefed-up NPWS draft management plan will be used to embolden the Arabana in saying who can and can’t have access to the region.

“It’s frustrating because we have been sailing the lake discreetly and in a low-key way all that time and have never had any problems,” Backway says.

“It’s not the local Indigenous people who are pushing it, it’s the government that’s pushing it.

“Put it this way, the word ‘permission’ has two letter ‘S’s and they are actually dollar signs. Someone is going to try to make a quid out of this. We are worried that it could have implications nationally and beyond Lake Eyre on any waterway which comes up against native title.”

Lake Eyre Yacht Club members at an annual regatta.

South Australian Opposition leader David Speirs is also sceptical about the proposal, alluding to comments by Arabana Aboriginal Corporation chairwoman Bronwyn Dodd that the lake is connected to stories and of great importance to Arabana people.

“We are proud to share this part of our country but we urge you to respect our Ularaka (stories), lore and culture and not enter the lake,” Dodd said when the draft plan was released.

Speirs, who as environment minister in the previous Marshall Liberal government had carriage of the Lake Eyre National Park, tells Inquirer he worries these “stories and lore” are being used to lock people out of the park on the basis of their race.

“Unproven lore and anecdotal stories should not be used to lock certain groups out of our natural environment based on race. If this becomes common practice, the outcome will see far less people enjoy and value our natural world,” he says.

But Close says that with the exception of the walking ban, the proposed rules and protections in the draft management plan are the same as those that existed when Speirs was environment minister.

Her comments about the safety of walking on the lake’s surface are backed by local Outback pilot Trevor Wright, who tells Inquirer people would be “cut to ribbons” if they attempted to access the lake by foot.

“And if you didn’t cut you’d end up sinking into the mud anyway,” Wright says.

The draft management plan is open for public consultation but Backway is ready to set sail again in defiance of any new muscled-up attempts to ban boats from the lake.

“I most certainly will be out there again and there will be other members sailing with me,” Backway says.

“I’m 72 years old so I don’t care. A spell in jail with a roof over my head and three free meals a day sounds good. I might start working on my autobiography.”

The yacht club’s battle to keep sailing the lake is the subject of many posts on its website. It also sells club merchandise online including bumper stickers featuring photos of people sailing the lake. The stickers bear the words: “We have a culture too”.