The has been much recent comment around the status of the Tuross Head beach caravan park. The land is a crown reserve under the care and control of Eurobodalla and is leased out for the purpose of a caravan park. Traditionally, prior to it being leased the park was able to be accessed and traversed by the public who would walk down the centre park road and find a track between tents to gain access to the beach.
Above: 1954 - as you can see the amount of "reclamation" is gobsmacking and the bulk of the caravan park infrasructure of cabins, roads and the massive rock wall are all now sitting on a sand dune. The line of the dunal bank above is close to the line of the rockwall that council built.
Prior to Council deciding it would lease the caravan park in the 1980's the long standing “un-official” pedestrian route was through the caravan park from the main beach car park. Following the leasing and with the completion of the cycleway on Nelson Parade Council directed pedestrians and cyclists to walk go along Clive Court. Clive Court has little in the way of safe shoulder to walk so to those who always walked/cycled through the caravan park continued to do so. This was tolerated for a while however it has now come to a point where the lessees of the park need to control who gains access into the park so that they can provide their guests with security due to a spate of burglaries in the park, and the need to afford its holidaying park patrons a greater deal of privacy from the ongoing “passing parade. The the present “owner” of the Beach Caravan Park has now taken the steps to block entry to the site and has restricted access to its park patrons and visitors only. As a consequence all pedestrians, cyclists and mobility scooters et al are now required to traverse around the caravan park altogether and travel along the public roadway of Clive Court. While Council have been clearly advised that during summer this route presents a HIGH risk to pedestrians forced to walk on the road Council suggest it is a very low risk as the traffic volumes are low and the the speeds of vehicles are at a a crawl. As the community is aware the grass shoulder of Clive Court becomes a parking strip over summer and as such pedestrians and cyclist are forced to traverse along several hundred metres of roadway.
The Council owned caravan park paved pathway that unofficially acted as the safe option for families, cyclists and pedestrians is now signposted as closed to public access and has been signposted as Private Property.
Above: The "right of way" for pedestrian access from the carpark behind the Main Beach to the "caravan park beach - the other alternate access points are via Wolf Reserve at nelson Parade or via the main beach.
The newly erected signposting will now see non-patrons detected by caravan park staff walking along this section are asked to leave as is allowable under the caravan park lease.
John Tilbrook, Secretary of the Tuross Head Progress Association has advised its members that "The revised route in order to continue along the cyclewalk requires pedestrians and cyclists to travel on public roadways shared by all manner of vehicles which poses a public safety risk, particularly during peak holiday seasons." "This is particularly the case when overflow parking in summer includes parked vehicles along the length of the grass verge alongside the caravan park roadway, and given the steep embankment on the opposite side of the caravan park, this serves to force pedestrians, including children, to walk along the roadway amidst moving vehicular traffic, as there is no other option."
"Against this back ground there is now a need to design and construct a section of cyclewalk on the western side of the holiday cabins adjacent to the existing roadways (Clive Court and roadway to Main Beach Carpark) to eliminate this “missing Link” of the cyclewalk route."
"Can Council please give this public safety issue its early attention to design the required section of shared pathway and determine costings. It is known that Council has rejected this THPA proposal in past years as being unnecessary. The THPA will consider contributing to this project cost as such a construction is directly aligned with the intended purpose of the THPA Cyclewalk Accounts fund."
Above: The grassed area is also "out of bounds" as it is part of the caravan park lease area reserved for tents - if you do use the "right of way you must stay on the cobbled road (THICK RED LINE) and then veer left and use the path to the beach BEFORE THE FIRST BEACH SIDE CABIN- Note; there is a tap there that is ONLY for park patrons.
