Letter to KI Farmers - Aphid Heinrich, Chair Kangaroo Island Landscape Board

Myself, Will Durack (KILB GM) and Jo Sullivan (KILB Sustainable Landscape Manager) attended the AgKI Board meeting this month and discussed the Boards approach to addressing unauthorised dams.

This was an excellent meeting. AgKI did their job of speaking clearly for their members and advocating for your needs. We did our job in that we listened and adapted our approach to meet the needs of the community based on your feedback. The result of this meeting is that we will not be communicating with landholders regarding compliance action until the season is broken.

To be clear, the Board was never going to require any compliance action while in drought but had planned to communicate early to reduce the risk of new unauthorised dam constructions and in case landholders wanted to address the issue immediately.

Many of you will have already received formal letters from the Landscape Board. These letters confirm that a dam was built or enlarged without a permit but importantly that these dams would have been approved had a permit been applied for and therefore there is no action required. Getting these letters out was a priority of mine and has been the Boards position from the beginning. I hope they clarify that while there are a large number of dams that have been built without a permit, the vast majority of these require no action.

I know that for some you these letters have caused further stress. This was not our intention and I apologise for adding burden to an already stretched community.

If you have any questions or concerns, as always please feel free to get in touch with myself or the Landscape Board staff.

Regards,

Andrew (Aphid) Heinrich
Chair KI Landscape Board