Farmers battle to stop camping on water frontages: Anglers fight back
If Victorian river and other crown land water frontages are opened up to camping, farmers want the State Government to establish a permit system limiting numbers.
FARMERS are making a last ditch bid to block an Andrews Government Bill allowing camping on 26,000km of crown land water frontages adjoining thousands of Victorian properties.
The Bill is due to come before Parliament’s Upper House this month, with the Government needing four crossbench MPs to make camping legal on river, lake and waterway frontages, most of which are licensed to adjoining landholders.
The Victorian Farmers Federation has briefed MPs, warning water frontage camping will lead to conflicts over stock disturbance, litter, waterway pollution, damage to riverside vegetation and the risk of fires escaping on to their land.
But the Government may already have the numbers it needs to pass the Parks and Crown Land Legislation Amendment Bill.
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party Upper House MP Jeff Bourman is in favour of camping on water frontages, saying “I can’t see it as a problem”.
Premier Daniel Andrews promised to open up water frontages to camping in the lead-up to the 2018 election and has gained the backing of Victoria’s peak fishing body.
VRFish chairman and Wimmera grain grower Rob Loats said the public already had rights of access to crown land water frontages.
“Some landholders have incorrectly assumed the land they have a licence to graze upon is theirs and theirs alone,” Mr Loats said.
“Some have gone to great lengths, erecting fences, installing ‘no access’ signs and padlocking gates. That robs families across the state of the opportunity to experience all that Victoria’s rivers have to offer.”
But Glenfalloch Station manager Dane Martin, who oversees 27kms of licensed Macalister River frontage, plus 17km more on the Ovens River, said the push to allow camping was “ludicrous”.
“It begs the question ‘Why are we doing this when we have all these parks and other public land the Government has locked up?’,” Mr Martin said.
Farmer and veterinarian Angus McKinnon has launched a petition calling on the Upper House to remove the Bill’s clause allowing camping or amend it to require adjoining landholder approval.
Dr McKinnon’s petition calls for a permit system that would limit campers and sites on river frontages, require landholder permission, manage accountability and biosecurity via mandatory registration, prohibit animals and firearms and mitigate the risk to road users and stock if gates are left open.
But VRFish advocacy director Ben Scullin opposed permits, given there was no requirement for camping in state forests.
“We’d prefer a code of conduct and education, not permits,” Mr Scullin said.
Both Mr Scullin and Dr McKinnon did agree camping should be excluded from areas where landholders had converted their grazing license into a riparian management licence, under agreements with local catchment management authorities.
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