Call for ‘special’ Bells protection

THE Greater Torquay Alliance wants Bells Beach to be recognised as a “special place” and is repeating calls for a management change to permanently protect the area from development.
The GTA’s push for a community-based committee follows the Winki Pop viewing platform and walkway controversy, which met with petitions, campaigns and community angst.
Surf Coast Shire Council’s proposal to build a 60-metre viewing platform and walkway was overruled by Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio in May and the current council voted in June to formally block the idea by removing any reference to it from the Bells Beach Surfing Recreation Reserve Management Plan, which occurred earlier this month.
GTA secretary Darren Noyes-Brown has welcomed the eventual end to the platform plan, however the battle to stop the permanent infrastructure being built has reinforced the group’s belief that the iconic site needs a new management model to ensure better environmental protection.
“The reason for the community-based committee is that the council’s present Bells Beach committee clearly isn’t working,” Darren said.
“The now infamous and unnecessary Winki platform that no-one wanted getting so far, even having its own state government panel hearing, is testament to that.
“The Greater Torquay Alliance is now working with other community groups including the Surfrider Foundation, SANE,
Bells Beach Preservation Society, and 3228 RA, to prepare a united position of how to protect Bells Beach, that can be presented to GORCAPA and state government.”
The reserve is currently under the management of Surf Coast Shire council, as the state government’s delegated manager.
A Bells Beach committee, made up of an impartial chair, representatives of the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation and Surfing Victoria, and six community nominees, advises the council on management of the reserve.
While the council manages the reserve to the high tide mark, a majority of the offshore waters are included in the Point Addis Marine National Park and managed by Parks Victoria.
The offshore waters in the northern part of the reserve are managed by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
The GTA wants a new autonomous committee to manage the reserve and sit under the umbrella of the state government’s Great Ocean Road Coastal and Parks Authority.
The GTA-proposed committee would include five surfers who surf at Bells regularly with no financial, contest or event vested interests, with one having environmental and biodiversity knowledge and not on a committee or an employee of a board riders club or Surfing Victoria; one non-surfing community user; one GORCAPA representative; one indigenous representative and one representative of the Easter surfing event manager, currently Surfing Victoria.
The committee would be responsible for all aspects of management of the reserve, similar to the current role of Surf Coast Shire, and funding and administration would be provided by GORCPA.
In the GTA proposal, if there was a conflict between a GORCPA decision and the Bells Committee, then mediation would be undertaken and the Bells Reserve CMP would be the reference document; GORCPA could not overrule the committee.
The local alliance believes Bells should have additional legislation separate from GORCPA to give greater protection, establishing the Bells Beach Reserve as a special place for surfing culture, as recognised by the listing on the Victorian Heritage Register 20 years ago, and restrict development within the reserve and immediate surrounding hinterland.
Management and maintenance of the reserve is currently guided by the Bells Beach Surfing Recreation Reserve Coastal and Marine Management 2015-2025, which can be viewed of the Surf Coast Shire website.