The Maverick Marine co-owner insists “we’re best off leaving it” following the recent news that a ban on wake enhancing boats and activities, including wakeboarding and wakesurfing, on a 49km stretch of the Murray River between Bundalong and Corowa had been put on hold.
“You’ve got to have a boat to suit the surroundings that you’re in, and respect the environment.
“River etiquette comes into it. There are areas that are better for certain forms of water activities.”
The Draft Murray River Erosion Management Plan recommended a trial ban for three, even up to five years.
But Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) Executive Director Maritime Angus Mitchell said the proposed restrictions would not be implemented until evidence is gathered in key areas to establish if there is a real need for the bans, as reported in The Free Press on November 28.
“Moving forward any options for change will be informed by community consultation,” Mr Mitchell said.
“It is clear that more work needs to be done and evidence gathered in key areas including vessel operations, incidents and compliance and erosion, to inform the need and merits of any options for change.”
Mr Walton said there isn’t enough evidence that proves wake enhancements are the major cause of bank degradation.
“There are different soils and there’s natural different progression of the river, the water will flow and take the weakest link,” he said.
“The river could sit empty for 10 years and then have a massive flood and all the crap would wash away anyway and the river would change its course.
“I think with high traffic areas the erosion would be made quicker because of the waves yes, but there was an argument about wind height, water load, arguments about wave of a boat – how much forces in a wave?
“At the end of the day the river height changes all the time. The river height is not constant, if the river height was constant then you could get a constant handle on it, but the evidence has to be right.”
Mr Walton said wake enhancing activities are popular in Corowa and RMS wouldn’t know what impact bans would truly have.
“They don’t care,” he said.
“This is the most regulated part of the river in the whole of the Murray River. They don’t think there are many skiers.
“Everyone wakeboards, every boat has a wakeboard in it.
“There are too many flaws in this situation,” he added.
Mr Walton, who with his brother Doug is part of the Save Boating on the Murray River group – which started the online petition that was sent to NSW Maritime Minister Melinda Pavey and various local state and federal politicians, aimed to shift the issue away from erosion to improving and educating boat users on safety and etiquette on the water – said the introduction of zones was a last ditch effort.
“Will something happen in the future? I don’t think so … they won’t introduce zones,” he said.
“If they introduce zones, they’ll only do it with public forums to justify where they want to do it and they’d need to map the river out.
“But then they couldn’t police it, the last thing they want is for someone to complain about someone’s boat going past with a wakeboard attached. It’s not going to happen.”
Federation Council Mayor Pat Bourke said more sufficient strategies can be worked on now that the bans have been put on the backburner.
“This period now provides community members and water users with the opportunity to come together and implement some great strategies and initiatives that were identified through the many public meetings,” he said.
More than 300 submissions were received during the community consultation after the draft plan was released by RMS in December 2017.
Roads and Maritime Principal Manager Southern Maritime Michael Hammond said after the consultation period finished nearly 12 months ago there were a range of topics raised in the submissions received.
While further work is being done, the Murray Darling Basin Authority will continue to gather appropriate data related to the Murray River between Corowa and the Ovens River junction.