Forum talks about keeping the ocean road great

THE community learnt a little more about the coming Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority and how it will change the existing arrangements at a forum in Aireys Inlet on Tuesday last week.

About 110 people attended the “Can the Great Ocean Road Always be Great?” forum organised by the Aireys Inlet and District Association (AIDA) and held at the Fairhaven SLSC clubrooms.

AIDA president Charlotte Allen said notable faces in the crowd included Polwarth MP Richard Riordan, Surf Coast Shire councillors Margot Smith and Tony Revell and the shire’s chief executive officer Keith Baillie, and Great Ocean Road Coast Committee chief executive officer Vanessa Schernickau.

The authority, which is being introduced as part of the Great Ocean Road Action Plan, will replace 11 managers of Crown land along the Great Ocean Road and will start its operations later this year.

The meeting heard from Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) Barwon South West regional director Colleen White, DELWP Great Ocean Road Reform manager Paul Jane and Professor Chris Ryan from the University of Melbourne.

Ms White and Mr Jane outlined the development of the legislation establishing the authority now before Parliament.

Professor Ryan reflected on the broader challenges facing the Great Ocean Road region. As an example, he used the development of the western coast road in Ireland for tourism, which resulted in traffic congestion and calls for bypass roads within a few years.

This was followed by questions from the floor. Topics raised included:

• The proposed Eden Project and the community survey results, with a claim that the figures being used by DEWLP, the Eden Project and Alcoa to indicate community support do not reflect the actual results
• How the membership of the new “skills based” authority would be decided and whether and how local representatives would be included
• Who would be responsible for approving events
• How too much vegetation along roadsides was causing fire danger
• The need to carefully protect sites of indigenous heritage
• The need for research into the vehicle carrying capacity of the Great Ocean Road
• How to resolve the conflict between the two broad aims of the new authority: to protect the environment and landscapes of the Great Ocean Road and increase tourism at the same time
• The place of the community, and the road’s communities, in developing strategic plans for the road, and
• Issues around the threat of fires and traffic management along the road during bushfires.

Doug Humann from the Aireys Inlet Fire Brigade spoke briefly about the plans for the new CFA station at the bottom shops.

The event also raised $420 for the Victorian Bushfire Relief Fund, and AIDA donated $100.