Final plan to manage horses on south-west beaches released

THE final plan to guide the use of a reserve on Victoria’s south-west coast is out, and has drawn a mixed response from the various interested parties.

The state government has been consulting since 2016 about the future of the Belfast Coastal Reserve between Warrnambool and Port Fairy, and released the Belfast Coastal Reserve Management Plan last week.

Key features of the 15-year plan include:

• A ‘Conservation Zone’ prohibiting horse riding and dog-walking

• A ‘Conservation and Recreation Zone’ allowing on-leash dog walking and recreational horse riding

• Priority management strategies to protect and monitor populations of beach-nesting birds, and

• Foreshore access throughout the entire reserve for walking dogs on-leash and recreational horse riding.

Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said the plan “balances the range of views on how to best protect the Belfast Coast for the community and the future”.

Independent Member for Western Victoria James Purcell said the draft plan (released earlier this year) was too restrictive and did not have enough stakeholder input to make the conditions acceptable to the community.

“Now we have a plan that each group can get behind. I think this is a great outcome for the area.”

However, the Belfast Coastal Reserve Action Group (BCRAG) is not in favour, saying the plan ignored the majority (60 per cent) of respondents that opposed commercial horse training in the reserve.

“Minister D’Ambrosio has put the blinkers on and ignored due process, good science, the threat to ancient culture and her responsibility to the environment,” BCRAG spokesperson Bill Yates said.

“Commercial horse training is not dependent on coastal beaches and horses are not under threat of extinction, but hooded plovers and other shorebirds that rely on the reserve for survival are.

“The minister claims the government has ‘found the best balance’ but you can’t balance extinction or desecration. A species can’t be a little bit extinct.”

The Victorian National Parks Association said the final plan “sets a poor precedent and will essentially commercialise Victoria’s public beaches”, and activist and musician Shane Howard described it as “cultural and environmental vandalism of the highest order”