Native Title slows coastal lakes project progress

Thursday September 07, 2023

Native Title issues are delaying the finalisation of the South East Coastal Lakes Project which includes Lake Bonney and Lake George.

A portion of Lake Bonney falls within the Mount Gambier electorate of Independent MP Troy Bell and he quizzed Environment Minister Dr Susan Close in the House of Assembly last week about when the consultation report will be finalised and provided to his community.

In reply, Dr Close said it was a project that she had inherited from the previous minister and now Liberal Opposition leader David Spiers.

“Of course, I was happy to allow it to continue to have the (community) consultation,” Dr Close said.

“I recall since there has been a bit of controversy about an American organisation that was used to engage in some of that consultation work.

“That was, of course, also arranged prior to my coming into office, but again I chose not to trouble any of the existing arrangements that I inherited in that case.

“The consultation report is still some time off.

“I was reading a brief just on the weekend where they’re looking at questions of native title that have yet to have been settled in a number of the locations, so just working out the extent to which it might be necessary to work through that before we do anything else.

“But I will make sure the chamber and the individual member concerned are kept abreast of the timing as we get closer to working that through.”

The project has generated considerable debate in the SE with some fearful that duck hunting might be curtailed or banned and other recreational restricted.

A mid-year protest meeting drew a crowd of 350 to the Millicent War Memorial Civic and Arts Centre.

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