The soaring popularity of one of Australia’s premier on-beach campsites is seeing it struggle under the weight of the sheer numbers staying at the location.
The District Council of Streaky Bay says there are growing concerns about Perlubie Beach on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. These centre around the potential damage to the beach’s environment, public safety issues, and equitable access for the community.
The council says that, during the peak tourism season, the campsite hosts anywhere from 80 to more than 100 caravans/campers, and that has led to numerous complaints.
These complaints cover a gamut of issues, including:
The District Council of Streaky Bay says as the site is currently under the care and control of the South Australian State Government, it is limited in what measures it can undertake to deal with the problems.
Apparently, conversations have been ongoing with the State Government about potentially handing over of care and control of the beach to the council, so it can be effectively manage the situation.
In a statement regarding the future management of Perlubie Beach, the council has proposed the following:
Mayor Travis Barber said that, while the area had enjoyed the exposure Perlubie Beach had given it, things had now reached a ‘tipping point’.
“Understanding that no one predicted the surge in popularity of the destination, this issue needs to be addressed now,” he said. “This isn’t a situation where council is saying ‘not our problem’, this is a situation where council is saying ‘we have a solution, help us address the problem’.”
He said that giving the council responsibility for the care and control of the beach to would ensure that there were the localised resources on the ground ‘to effectively manage the destination”.
In the meantime, the council is simply asking visitors to show consideration to the beach and other users.
“We understand the attraction of Perlubie Beach as it’s a much-loved beach to our community as well,” said Council’s CEO, Damian Carter. “However, you need to consider others and your overall footprint on the beach.”
Another beautiful place that is suffering, & will likely be closed down, because of the selfish few. There is a toilet there, so no need for lazy people to be using the sand dunes.
We stayed last year for 2 nights, just fabulous, there was about 5 vans on the beach and about 5 on the entrance, but they were not blocking anyone’s way. Such a sad state of affairs when you read these stories as above and we are all human beings.
New rules, limited the amount of vans/camper trailers, need to be fully self contained, and that means toilet, showers, grey water tanks, have a permit system in place where you need to apply and pre book and pre pay. Charge $25 per night for 2 people.
Give control to the local council and set up it like Kingston SE – low cost, maximum 3 day stay, self contained only with a ranger to police it.
We stayed on Perlubie Beach a week ago for 5 nights and would agree that it does need further controls to ensure the safety and comfort of all users.
Use of the sand dunes as toilets by those who are not self contained was very common during our time on the beach. This was despite the fact that the toilet block was approximately 450 metres away.
Speeding on the beach is an issue however from what we observed the primary offenders are day use people who have just come to drive along the beach. Campers were far more mindful of the surroundings when driving.
Would hope that any changes improve the experience for visitors and not hamper them.
We have stay here a beautiful beach stop in a full self contained motorhome and didn’t camp under the day shelters for hikers to camp under
Simple rules trouble is it’s the simple people that stuff it up for everybody else
Yes we do, this is another example of a beautiful place being over run and the actions I’d a small minority will ruin it for everyone, perhaps it could be managed similarly to Rapid Bay. It beggars belief why anyone would remove signs and also defecate on the sand dunes when toilets are available!
There is one toilet for males and as for females I have never checked it. There is no drinking water or power. Campers have over run the beach and surrounding areas with their vehicles. The use of off road vehicle’s are also damaging the reserve that runs along the coastline. Campers seem to think that because Google has the dirt road as a real road but that dirt track goes through some ones private property, how would you like to have all and sundry gouging a roadway across your land? Cutting down the fences and barriers put there to save the coastline from further damage as you drive instead of walking.
So since campers have managed to stuff up a nice beach there needs to be serious changes to save it.