February Myall Lakes

I have just been to Myall Lakes. In two and a half days I visited most parts of the national park, including the two major western extensions, recently gazetted. I have loved Myall Lakes since my first visit in 1964. There is much to love, and I am still impressed by the magnificence of the place.
The central heathlands (The Moors), eastern lakeshores and coastal dunes retain the potential to be regarded, and managed as NSW’s best coastal wilderness. This national park is, as a whole, more distinctive in beauty and interest than Bundjalung, a part of which is zoned "primitive area". Out there in the great open spaces it should be possible to forget the human-dominated world outside.

I managed to get myself into that central core once again. It was a grey day, enlivened by a spanking nor'-easter. Miles from anywhere, with only the waving, rustling heathland shrubs, the little twittering birds, the gentle roar from the forest treetops and the surf beyond for company. A night with no human sound, no human light. I was transported back 35 years to those brave days of discovery. I recalled the long walks on a sandy track round the lake fringed with grand old paperbarks, past wide stretches of wet and dry heath, with the melaleucas standing like slender white picket fences in the distance, brilliantly lit by a late afternoon sun; the long beach walk back from Mungo Brush to Big Gibber; other amazing names, like Tickerabit, Kataway, and Gnahpeang!

The mineral sands mining has come and gone, its trails of destruction now at least revegetated if not restored. Now there remain mainly problems of management. Chief among these is vehicular access both on land and on water. These have a common theme: inappropriateness in a national park setting. We must never lose sight of the essential twin purposes of a national park. By international agreement these are, primarily, to conserve natural systems and their components and to protect environmental integrity (including scenery); and, secondarily, to provide human beings with recreation of a non-intrusive kind with low impact, both environmental and social. The second function must be subject to the first.

What did I learn during my non-stop few days? First, that the old magic has not been, cannot be, extinguished. This great coastal lagoon system retains its fascination, its variety, its great spaces, its impression of wilderness. The damage done by vehicles has not killed it, only marred and insulted it. However, drivers have created significant damage and spoiled the experience of those who, like myself, value the national parks for the chance they should give us to escape from the machinations of man and experience nature in full measure. The area around Big Gibber - once a virtual wilderness of sand and forest with a rocky headland emerging on the sea front like the island it once was - is now heavily roaded. There are vehicle tracks everywhere. On Broadwater, power craft continue to speed, churning up seagrass beds and menacing swimmers, who are the legitimate users of national park waters.

This small but significant group of "motorised" people treat this wonderland of nature as just another piece of coast, to be explored and used with the assistance of a vehicle. They want no part of it to be "inaccessible". They do what they like, with nobody stopping them, the NPWS even providing for their beach access! They are intolerant of restriction, which others consider necessary if national parks are to mean anything different from resorts and playgrounds. They have lost the use of their legs. They ignore or defy the feeble attempts of NPWS (printed notices displayed at some access points) to keep them to the beach - out of the dunes and off the vegetation.

All this and the lack of support from the high echelons have neutered the resolve of NPWS regional staff to manage strongly. Bad park usage has been allowed to become entrenched. Division of responsibilities between NPWS and other departments, particularly the Waterways Authority of NSW, remains a stumbling block which must soon be removed by the State Government, extending the powers of the Service to manage completely the water areas connected with its estate. (This includes the water column and the intertidal zone.)

What are the solutions to the access management dilemma in which the Service finds itself? The inescapable conclusion after reading the 1984 Plan of Management (POM) is that its ideals, policies and provisions have simply not been implemented. For instance, on page 5, a range of recreation opportunities were to be offered, "wherever this is compatible with the goal of conserving natural features and processes." Under 2.2 Water-based Recreation, the POM speaks of the desirability of providing a special experience, "involving a sense of remoteness coupled with an absence of hu- man interference ... and encourag- ing activities of a self-reliant, dis- persed nature." Fifteen years later, these ideals have obviously not been realised. Power-boat users have the nearby large coastal lagoon of Wallis Lake to the north and Port Stephens, NSW’s largest estuary, to the south. They do not need Myall Lakes as well. Regional planning should recognise and act upon this.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of firm guidelines as to what constitutes "appropriate recreation". NPA awaits action, through the proposed revision of the National Parks and Wildlife Act, and in accordance with Recommendation 6.5 of the 1998 NPWS Visions for the New Millennium: "The term "appropriate use" in the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 be expressly and more fully defined to permit only those uses which are consistent with the conservation of nature and cultural heritage objectives of the reserve category, and are ecologically sustainable." However, this definition is incomplete, as it omits the social impacts of inappropriate activities, such as the effects (psychological and physical) of beach vehicles on passive users. (The physical effects on other people range from sight and sound, through the annoyance of endless tyre ruts, to outright danger.) It is essential that the Minister and the Service recognise the need for social as well as ecological acceptability.

Good recreational management must become an effective combination of three factors:
1 A new determination by the Service to require compliance with its regulations. A special NPWS policing unit could be considered, for use in known trouble spots.
2 A greatly enhanced educational program to explain the purposes of national parks and guide those who wish to engage in inappropriate activities to where they can legitimately do so.
3 True regional planning, which recognises the distinctive purposes of national parks and ensures that all reasonable human needs are met without the conflict which blights national park usage and management today.

What you can do
Those who wish to air their concerns can make them known to the NPWS by contacting Carla Rogers on 6554 0446. Carla is the park planner in charge of a current review of the 1984 park Plan of Management. The more people who contribute, the better chance there is of getting things changed.