Eyes on popular camping beaches for conservation

Popular coastal camping areas across the Eyre Peninsula are ear-marked for conservation management works over the next three years under an ‘Eyes on Eyre’ project led by the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board in conjunction with Regional Development Australia Eyre Peninsula and other partners.

The Eyes on Eyre project partnership was successful earlier this year in gaining $710,000 of funding from the State Government’s Landscape Priorities Fund, to help with conservation management at priority coastal campgrounds around the region.

An expression of interest process for eligible local councils to apply for the funding has seen the City of Whyalla, District Council of Franklin Harbour, District Council of Cleve, Lower Eyre Council and the District Council of Streaky Bay granted approximately $470,000 to help with these conservation works.

The Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board’s Planning and Assessment Officer, Andrew Freeman who has been managing this coastal conservation project, says it’s encouraging to see progress being made.

“Progress has already been made on some council projects such as online camping booking systems being put in place to help manage camping numbers in a sustainable manner,” Mr Freeman says.

“We’re really pleased that so many councils are getting involved to protect our Eyre Peninsula coastline.”

The councils will use the funding for other activities including:

• Erection of fencing or rock structures to manage access to appropriate areas.
• Revegetation of damaged areas.
• Targeted control of pests and weeds.
• Installation of regionally consistent signage.

Over the next three years, works will be undertaken at Fitzgerald Bay (north of Whyalla), Point Gibbon (just south of Cowell), Redbanks (just north of Arno Bay), Farm Beach (near Wangary), Greenly Beach (near Coulta) as well as Speeds Point and Perlubie Beach near Streaky Bay.

“These are all spots that get a lot of traffic during peak holiday times and it can certainly be a challenge to manage visitors and their impact – whether they are locals or from further afar – along with conservation,” Mr Freeman says.

“We’ve seen the negative impact that visitors can have on our local environment – especially in recent years when people were holidaying closer to home – so we need to find a way to let people explore our coastal areas in a more environmentally-aware way.

“This funding will assist the community of Eyre Peninsula to look after our sensitive coastal environments while at the same time, the improved infrastructure will provide a better visitor experience.”

A second call for applications will be made in the coming months for the funding that wasn’t allocated in this first call.

Eyes on Eyre is an initiative between the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board, Regional Development Australia Eyre Peninsula, the Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association and the Department for Environment and Water.

The Landscape Priorities Fund boost is in addition to a $500,000 Parks 2025 grant that was obtained by Regional Development Australia Eyre Peninsula to undertake campground infrastructure to support the introduction of an online booking system.

This fund saw Walkers Rock, Sheringa Beach, Point Gibbon and several campgrounds in the lower Eyre Peninsula such as Fishery Bay, brought onto the online system which is licensed and managed by the Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association. The pilot proved the concept for sustainable management of campgrounds and aligns with the Parks SA system. Visitors can book campsites at www.eyrepeninsula.com/camping.

The Landscape Priorities Fund supports landscape boards to invest in large, landscape scale projects addressing regional and cross-regional priorities.