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9/05/09 7:12 AMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia 

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Saturday, May 9th, 2009

Time Event6:40a Rottnest Island - My submitted comments on the draft management plan

For enthusiastic Rottnest watchers, last Tuesday was shut off day for public comments on a draft of the island’s nextmanagement plan. Now the office boy is sifting through all the dross.

These sort of complex government documents seem to be contrived to obfuscate, furthermore the new trend is toencourage the public to wade through them on a computer screen and come up with better ideas. Alternatively one couldprint out its 120 pages or buy a glossy hard copy from the Island Authority for twenty bucks. I chose the cheapo screenoption and soon became lost.

For better or worse, I eventually submitted a few brief comments online. I’m not sure if I put all my responses in the rightplaces because some of the headings seemed a bit broad, plus after all, I’m only an aging muddle-headed wombat. Nor did

I respond to everything listed. So here’s the comments I made on some of the numbered intitatives:

2. There is a burgeoning interest in underwater photography as major digital camera manufacturers introduce inexpensive cameras which

can operate effectively in depths up to ten meters. I believe the Authority should embrace this revolution as totally in keeping with its

eco tourism policy and use it as justification for ending the killing of fish as a recreational pursuit on and near the island.

3. Twenty years would reinforce the hegemonic aspirations of the present business community. A five to seven year time frame would

more in the interest of consumers and be better able to accommodate new trends and more innovative operators.

4. The RIA can never become fully sustainable given the way the infrastructure is set up. The wording of this initiative reads as flim

flam. Sorry.

8. I recognise and respect the need to accommodate Aboriginal sensitivities regarding colonial disenfranchisement, imprisonment and the

Aboriginal burials at Rottnest, however I believe the RIA should resist the temptation to promote hypothetical assertions about the

prehistoric period. While there is no doubt people roamed parts of the Swan coastal plain over 30,000 years ago, there is no such

evidence, archaeological or otherwise which has been validated for Rottnest. Furthermore, Australia is now a multicultural society andspecial racialist provisions to accommodate any ethnicity should be economically pragmatic. Perhaps a panel of clinical psychologists

should be consulted before embarking on some of the potentially depressing proposals outlined in Initiative 8.

13. The golf course and 'Country Club' appear to be a dead loss and an environmental catastrophe. A roller coaster might be better.

15. The less private boats which rip into the reefs with their anchors and visually pollute the island's bays the better.

16. There is still a lot of loose asbestos on the island, plus various other serious safety matters needing attention. Someone needs to

assume some old fashioned responsibility and go for a walk instead of riding about in a vehicle. It's not rocket science.

16. Extra: On a positive, the drinking water is outstanding in taste and softness. It is really first rate stuff. Much better even than the

excellent water on the mainland. The RIB should promote Rottnest water for drinking and softer-than-soft hair for women after

shampooing.

17. Quokkas are arguably the most important attraction for most island visitors. There is a glaring area of neglect by the RIB with failing

to providing reliable fresh water supplies for them. As global warming and record dry spells increase there will be an urgent need for

clean drinking stations to be set up at strategic locations. Seeing as most of the natural water sources have been corrupted by human

activity, quokkas should not be forced to drink from unreliable sources such as fetid puddles under drains.

18. The Marine Management Strategy Plan is an improvement on past policies, but it still appears complex and confusing. Furthermore

it’s unclear how the territorial limits of the new zones will be communicated to fish. I think it inevitable in the future there will beconsensus that the entire island will need to be declared a marine sanctuary. Much simpler and less expensive to manage as well.

20. I don't think the interested public has been well served over the years by most of the innumerable scientific researchers who've sought

to further their ambitions on Rottnest. I believe that the RIB should make it a condition that it requires a copy of all papers and theses

evolved from research on the island under a shared copyright arrangement whereby PDF copies could potentially be placed online for

free access by other researchers (and the interested public.)

23. "Team Rottnest" sounds a bit spin doctorish.

24. I've already noticed this happening. (Encouraging a sincere, cheerful, friendly attitude towards visitors by island staff.)

I intend to expand on some of these comments in future editions of my Fremantlebiz blog.

Something I forgot to mention was my own idea on how to be a successful Rottnest entrepreneur, though a proposedreassigning of the use of an existing architecturally interesting facility at Narrow Neck, which is near the western end of 

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8/14/2019 Rottnest Island - My submitted comments on the draft management plan

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9/05/09 7:12 AMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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the island. At present there is nothing out there to cater to hungry and thirsty tourists - not even a tap for a drink of water. Ireckon on a hot summer day with hundreds of panting cyclists peddling past I could in tradition of retail gouging easilycharge them ten bucks for an icy cold Coke. If we were living in a civilised developing nation it would have happenedlong ago.

 My development proposal for Narrow Neck 

© MMIX Paul R. Weaver.

Click the Sribd logo for downloadable PDF versions of my Rottnest essays:

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of themhave a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several timesby clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21stcentury Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking towrite at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

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