Bonna Point Boat Ramp woes

[Paikea]

The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader carried a letter and Pic from a guy complaining that his boat gets stuck on the sand of the Bonna Point ramp at anywhere below mid-tide. He included a pic that really demonstrated the problem and closed with the observation that there was one good point, as the ramp is useless it is never busy!

It may be time for someone starts a Petition to the Minister demanding that this gross waste of public moneys be fixed.

Cheers

Paikea

[Paddy454]

Hi Paikea,

I campaigned for long time to council and the ministers before and during the boat ramp upgrades at Bonna Pt to have it extended further out and/or deepened.

Historically it has always been shallow and especially on low tide.

I spoke or emailed the Mayor,Mark Speakman MP, Robert Brown fishers & shooters and Duncan Gay the roads & maritime minister in regards to the issues.

All responded but all I achieved was to have the adjacent groin extended to stop sand getting washed on to the ramp which helped slightly but not enough.

The problem why they will do nothing as I was told is there is some rare seagrass there and it`s protected by fisheries laws.

They had an option to build it in a different spot at Kurnell but opted against as the existing ramp was there.

It`s a great shame as other than the depth and access at anything below 0.7 mtrs it is a fantastic facility.

Maybe if more people complain something may happen especially with a NSW election on the horizon.

I would write to Duncan Gay and The fishers & shooters plus local MP`s

[Busy-livin]

I was there last weekend checking it out to see if it would be suitable for my seafarer viking with duel axel trailer.. Not 30 seconds of being there I already knew there was absolute no chance what so ever near low tide and I'd assume difficult at high due to my trailer being custom for mainly drive on work and the sand would be a challenging factor .As paddy said a great shame as I found the area to be an excellent ramp area with toilets good parking and great staging areas with taps !

Would be great if government could get together and overcome these problems

[Geoff]

The ramp is a great improvement on the previous facility but unfortunatly the Greens got involved claiming seagrass is required for breeding hence the short ramp.

This is how stupid they are , no fish in it's right mind would breed there with all the outboard & boating activity going on also , there are hundreds of sq mt of seagrass West of the ramp.

Six or eight additional sq mt at the end of the ramp would not make any difference to breeding.

But the issue goes further as shown in this photo which was taken at low tide,

The end of the ramp does not blend into the sand but has about a 6" drop off & at low tide when the trailer drops onto the sand any reasonable boat needs a decent 4WD to pull it out.

This photo shows a trailer off the ramp which was the only way they could retreive the boat.

But the issue goes further , extending the large groin on the Eastern side will do bugger all to fix the sand problem

The sand between the groin & the small rock wall needs to be exuvated & moved to another location , also , the rock wall needs to be extended to prevent further migration.

No rocket science , just common sence but your dealing with Councils who , in this case are totally hopeless.

On the occusions I use this ramp I do so on days when it high tide around midday or early PM , retreival with a 2WD car is quite easy.

Geoff

[Jocler]

I use the ramp a fair bit but try to limit it to a couple of hours before and after low tide and like Geoff, I look for an early morning low so that I can get a good days fishing in.The facilities are very good and there is heaps of parking so it is a shame it has its limitations, watch out in summer though as a lot of people cant read the signs saying Cars with Trailers only.

As for the seagrass, it didn't seem to stop the pipe work for the desal plant going in but that is a different government body.

J

Edited August 18, 2014 by Jocler

[Geoff]

Just for interest , here is a photo of the origional ramp. Note , no sand on the ramp & the low leval of sand between the ramp & the groin compared to the photo in my origional post.

The construction company have created the sand problem by dumping (pilling up) the exuvated sand next to the ramp.& as such with the tidal flow keeps pushing the sand onto the ramp.

Extending the length of the large groin will not fix the problem

Fixing the sand aspect will not improve the depth issue but will ,at least , will provide 2 lanes sand free

Geoff