Area loses ‘fish cash’

JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
VICTORIA’S coast from Queenscliff to Anglesea is the state’s most deprived area for recreational angling facilities, a report has found.
The report, Analysis of Coastal Recreational Fishing Facilities, said failure to deliver upgrades would cost Victoria’s economy millions of dollars in lost revenue.
The Department of Primary Industries-commissioned report said recreational fishing in Victoria would be worth more than $10 billion over the next 20 years.
But the economic benefit would be lost without significantly improved facilities, the report said.
Inadequate or absent boat ramps and parking spaces were barriers to recreational anglers.
The report identified a need for a new “safe harbour” between Queenscliff and Apollo Bay.
An audit of facilities found that Anglesea’s boat ramp was no longer accessible and Point Roadknight’s was unfit for use. Torquay’s new ramp required “immediate attention”, with owners of large recreational boats reporting it was unusable.
“In some cases the lack of attention to boat ramp surfaces, silt build-up and degradation presents a hazard to community safety,” the report said.
“Given the demand for access points and the current and projected high usage along this part of the coast, development of additional sites and increased capacity of current sites should be undertaken.”
Fishing Geelong secretary John Hotchin backed the report’s findings.
“As an industry we need recognition like this to put pressure on the powers that be to realise it’s an enormous industry – it’s bigger than AFL football,” he said.
“There are so many different government departments and committees and there are so many fingers in the pie and they all want a piece of the dollar.
“It can take months to wade through the bureaucratic gobbledegook. It needs to be totally streamlined so we can get projects up and happening quicker and cheaper.
“All these issues been identified before but, whether it’s going to change, I don’t know.”