Sarah Herrmann, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Community consultation is now open on the draft Yorke Peninsula Coastal Access Strategy 2025-2035, with members of the public invited to share their feedback via a survey.

Led by the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, the strategy has been developed with the Department for Environment and Water; the Barunga West, Copper Coast and Yorke Peninsula councils; Yorke Peninsula Tourism; Narungga organisations; local stakeholders and community members.

Consultation sessions have already been held with local landholders and progress associations, 4WD representatives and the tourism sector.

The strategy is a response to the increasingly negative impact of off-road vehicle access and unmanaged camping.

Groups in favour of the strategy say use of four-wheel drives, quad bikes and trail bikes and unmanaged camping is resulting in cliff and dune erosion (to the point of exposing Narungga burial sites), littering and pollution, harm to native vegetation and animals, and unsociable and unsafe behaviour.

The strategy aims to balance responsible and sustainable access to the coast with the protection of the natural environment and cultural heritage by providing direction to responsible bodies.

The strategy’s suggestions include consolidating and maintaining access tracks with clear signage and infrastructure such as fences and bollards, including on the Walk the Yorke trail, to prevent vehicle access.

Identifying opportunities for offbeach camping, and considering camping restrictions or closures; protecting birds with seasonal access restrictions; restricting access to dunes; and revegetating dunes and cliffs, are also discussed.

The strategy also proposes auditing toilets, bins, picnic tables and boat ramps and creating an improvement plan in line with demand.

The need to raise awareness and educate locals and visitors to build respect and increase responsible and safe coastal visitation is also a key topic.

Have your say on coastal plan

Speaking at the monthly Yorke Peninsula Council meeting on February 12, Northern and Yorke Landscape Board general manager Tony Fox said the majority of community and stakeholders were on board with the strategy.

“We’re committed to listening to what people want and not restricting access to coast by applying it,” he said.

“It’s not stating specific actions, it actually just provides a framework for decision making to help prioritise how you look at each different component of your coast, and make some decisions about how you manage access there.

“Some of the suggestions that might come out of that is reducing four-wheel drive camping on beaches.

“We’re hoping to look at places where people are accessing beaches across dune systems, so multiple tracks entering the same beach, rationalising those and maintaining a really good access track to the beaches.

“So not restricting people’s ability to go to beaches and have a bit of fun, take the four-wheel drives and eskies down there and the beach cricket and have fun — but to do it in a way that gets people off the sand dunes.

“Sand dunes are critically important and we’ve got to stop impacting on them because they’re getting degraded rapidly.”

To have your say on the strategy, visit www.bit.ly/ YPCoastalStrategy, or visit your local council office for a printed copy, before March 20.

The final strategy is expected to be finalised and signed by the partner organisations by mid- 2025.

Once the strategy is approved, a three-year implementation plan will be developed by the partners. 

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 25 February 2025.
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