The poor condition of the facilities at one of Victoria’s favourite national parks has been slammed as simply not being good enough.
According to a report in the Herald-Sun newspaper, rotting structures, broken toilets and dodgy barbecues are just some of the issues plaguing the Dandenong Ranges National Park.
The Parks Victoria’s website says that Kalorama Park has been without women’s toilets since January because of ‘maintenance issues’, and eight months ago the rotting timber stairs linking two car parking areas were ‘closed indefinitely’, with visitors told to walk or drive around the roadway to access the lower picnic area.
Gary Driscoll, who lives opposite Kalorama Park, told the Herald-Sun he was appalled nothing had been done to fix problems.
“As an advertisement for Victoria, this is pretty shocking,” he said. “We get lots of interstate and overseas visitors come every day and this is what we show them – it’s not good enough.”
Apparently, barbecues at the park have also been out of order for more than a year.
Among the list of break downs and temporary closures in the Dandenong Ranges National Park were the toilet block at Olinda’s Doongalla Homestead picnic area, the barbecue at One Tree Hill Picnic Ground in Ferny Creek and the footbridge between Lyrebird Falls and Kay’s Picnic Ground in Kallista.
According to Parks Victoria’s annual report, government funding has been slashed by $45m in the past three years.
However, the organisation’s district manager, Craig Bray, said Parks Victoria still had a comprehensive maintenance program to ensure access and public safety is maintained year round.
“Currently there is a small number of assets, which represent less than 1% of the total assets in the park, that are closed or out of service,” he told the Herald-Sun. “This represents normal wear and tear in a park of this size and popularity.”
Parks Victoria says it will continue to address maintenance issues in the park as part of its daily park operations.
National Parks, Many years ago we visited the Royal National Park in NSW. It’s the worlds oldest surviving Nat. Park. The thing that stuck in our minds was that there were “shiny” new Nat. Park vehicles and park rangers in unblemished park uniforms but on a couple of the walks we did, we did not see anybody maintaining the walking tracks. One path in particular was so badly eroded and had been for some time, this was obvious by the detours that had been made by walkers to avoid the risk of twisting an ankle or worse.
We have seen similar situations (lack of maintenance), in a variety of N.P’s. since so is it
mismanagement or ????????.
In Tasmania about 12 months ago, we went to a favourite camping area near St. Helens only to find a newly erected “No Dogs” sign because of the apparent affect on the shore bird nesting area.
We therefore camped in an approved area within 100 metres of the “No Dogs” area ??????, most afternoons though you could see feral cats that you could easily throw a saddle on, moving down to the “nesting areas”.
In all honesty though, we don’t visit many N.P’s. these days because of our travelling companion (a labrador).
I believe that the majority of travellers, particularly “Grey Nomads” with pets are are very responsible so perhaps if the N.P.W.S. relaxed their rules on domestic animals in parks and realised that dingoes and feral cats are more the problem then people such as us would visit the parks and pay the camp fees which in turn would increase their revenue.
Alternatively, why not have a “pet permit” system which would have the same effect ???????
Just a thought ?????
Unfortunately what you have seen is widespread, and it is cost effective to close something rather than maintain the asset.
However it would be wrong to blame the staff that you see in the field as they are generally dedicated, under paid, and bear the brunt of abuse from irate travellers.
The blame for this situation needs to be shared around. First or all are the pollies who do not value this national asset or see the commercial value in the number of tourists who travel every year to see this wonderful country. Secondly though the majority of travellers who complained bitterly about the charges introduced to camp in the NP sites do not realise that without these funds the parks will fall into further disrepair.
The camping charges were subsequently withdrawn, but this will mean that it will be some time before we see any improvement and most likely will mean the closure of more facilities.
With respect to NO DOG areas these are normally seasonal when shore birds are breeding. However the presence of feral animals such as cats, dogs, foxes, etc are devastating most of our bush and the scale of the problem is beyond our capacity to stop. Recently while travelling in the Flinders Ranges we were astounded by the number of feral goats. To their credit we did not see all that many in the Flinders or Gammon Ranges, how ever the areas adjacent to the parks were over flowing with goats. Travellers around Cobar will know what I mean.
Feral deer are numbered in the hundreds of thousands in our alpine areas but we can’t run a few hundred head of cattle. Trout devastate the native fisheries but are protected, bred and helped to maintain populations. What happened to our priorities?
I would put it to “Sundy” that a dingo is a native animal and has more right to be there than a feral dog that lives in a caravan.
The people who would pay for a permit are not the people who cause the problem. As usual it is the minority who spoil it for the majority.
Personally I do not want to pull up at a road side stop and find dog waste because you wanted to give the dog a opportunity to relieve themselves.
In 4wding there is a program for dobbing in a hoon, perhaps we should dob in those that do the wrong thing such as leaving their cans, stubbies, broken chairs, bags of rubbish, etc, etc. It never fails to amaze me that travellers think that leaving their bag of rubbsih next to the overflowing bin is acceptable. You brought it with you so take it home! Rubbish left behind attracts scavangers and eventually gets spread out over the camp area or road side stop.
Don’t be part of the problem, become part of the solution.
Regards