Ballina...Boat anglers not welcome!

[banshee]

For the last twenty years fishing clubs and individuals in this area have tried to get a tap that works and some sort of toilet facility for the Fisheries Creek Boat Ramp,the council in their wisdom,prefer that people shit under the bridge and not use the cleaning table(unless they like there fish with a delectable coating of Pelican shit).Although other ramps in the town are equaly as bad this is the major ramp for Ballina and the only one suitable for launching sea going vessels.After repeated harrasing the council told our club to use a ramp at the end of a quiet little cauldersac surrounded by half million dollar mansions(you wouldn't have to be Einstien to work out what would happen if fifteen to twenty boats gathered here 4am Sunday morning) ,toilets would be locked in the morning but would probably be open when we got back in,there was a tap there with excelent presure,but no cleaning facilities,we declined the offer but some of us decided to use the water to flush our motors after outings,well you guessed it,council came along last week and hamered the tap threads rendering the tap incapable of having a hose fitted to it,seems like the residents who built knowing that there was a ramp there first don't want any boats there at all.Anyone contemplating a holliday down this way who wants to be able to flush their motors and clean their catch(and crap in a toilet)at the ramp on their return would do them selves a favour by staying on the road another fifteen minutes till you get to Evans Head,spend your money in a shire that values who you are and what you do.

[Local_Guy]

bloody councils.
their motto must be "damned if you do, damned if you don't"

[MrLuminous]

IF THE COUCIL GUYS WERE INTO FISHING I COULD BET A HOUSE THAT THEY WOULD HAVE A GOOD PROPER RAMP WITH ALL FACILITIES AVAILABLE
Cheers

[beatle]

What's happened to Ballina I lived there for sixteen years Fishery Creek ramp was terrific, good clean fish cleaning tables,tap available to wash down motors a really good place to launch the boat. Maybe they have had a change of council and have become "green" and consider the Pelicans more important than us silly fisher/boaters/tourists that bring dollars to the town.-Beatle [smiley=beatnik.gif]

[mono]

Geez things are bad when Ballina council are worse than Byron council!! Its terrible when a local council wont support the biggest sporting pastime-industry in the country. Maybe try what the local club here at brunswick has just done. They asked NSW Fisheries for some money out of the fishing licence income to rebuild the cleaning facilities beside the ramp. They said yep, no worries. I'm not sure how much they got but it had to be a few thousand because the new facilities are A1 thanks to the money and some hard work by a handful of individuals. If you want me to find out how they got the funding send me a pm and I'll find out for you. Geez bloke has got to have somewere to clean them big north coast winter fish! Cheers Mono

[blaze]

maybe its time to try and get a fisherperson elected on the council and also put a petion foward from all concerned ratepayers and business that benfit from boats and fishing, it may suprise the council of the support you get
cheers
blaze

[banshee]

We had a sit down with Fisheries and a rep from the Fishing license expenditure committee two weeks ago,if we can get water presure they will supply a covered cleaning table,the grab is,council claims the cost for this is to much due to all the pipe work,the truth is,it is a simple task of removing a restrictor that was put in a number of years back,an insider sympathetic to the cause has passed this info onto us,he also told us that due to this ramp being used by tourists(no votes in tourists) it is very low priority.The local member has also been involved and can't believe councils negative attitude.Ten years ago,the fishing clubs in the area offered to build a toilet block if council conected it to the main,this was rejected,a short while back the surf club wanted to relocate their jet boat here they offered to put an amenities block in there set up,this was also rejected.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Cripes Banshee, sounds like you are getting Byron Shire disease. For your sake I hope not.
If I was to be really cynical, I'd suggest that you might find that one or two of the councillors live nearby said boat ramps.
All you can do is grather as much local support for it as possible and keep banging on the door I guess. Good luck.

[Sean]

Banshee, There is a good tap (excellant pressure) about halfway along the carpark (towards mc donalds) on the mesh fence, nobody seems to know about it as I am usually the only one who uses it. Sean :)

[fatboy74]

me and a few mates were down there on the long weekend and we had trouble finding a ramp on south ballina side. both ramps we went to had about 6 inchs of water to launch the boat in.

[fatboy74]

were not takeing the boat down there again .