|
Home About Us Objectives Committee Join Contact Us News Tree planting Weeding Archives Policies Comment Quiz |
|
|
Convenor’s Annual Report 2002-2003 (Presented at the AGM) “Do we make a difference? As I have reviewed the year for this report I see that there are in fact many areas where our input, has been adopted, or has helped to bring about modification of management proposals and recommendations. It is therefore a very interesting time to be a Rottnest Society committee member. It appears that we do continue to share with a significant percentage of Western Australians a desire for Rottnest to be managed in a way that allows future generations to have similar experiences to those we have had ourselves. The Rottnest Society continues to have an impact on the management, and thus on the future, of Rottnest. How do we have an impact? I suggest that a major area of influence can be found in the matter of the language used in official RIA documents. I have, for example, just been reading the Rottnest Island Authority’s Annual Report for 2001-2002, a document is now available on the RIA’s website. A point of considerable interest to me is that there is very little reference to “tourism” or “tourists” or to activities especially designed to attract tourists. The new Rottnest Island Management Plan also contains virtually no reference to “tourists” and tourism”. I consider this to be a major step forward as one could be forgiven for thinking that a significant part of the focus of some recent Annual Reports and of the last Rottnest Island Management plan was on Tourism. This morning on Radio National I heard an education expert talking about how the “myth” precedes the reality, that one must “change the language” in order to bring about changes in practice. I could not agree more. The RIMP is the Plan for the next 5 years and it is the guiding document for the work of the management team. Given that the reality we want is really expressed very well in the wording of the Act, which refers specifically to “Western Australian families and other visitors” and does not refer to ‘tourists’ or “tourism at all, this change of language used in these documents is of fundamental importance. The language used in the official documents will set the framework – create “the myth” – within which staff work. In the case of Rottnest a major goal over recent years was to achieve the status of WA’s top tourist destination. That kind of focus will inevitably bring about particular outcomes, which are not consistent with the wording of the Act. Your committee has made this point in a number of ways in the course of developing responses to the RIMP. The Society was also pleased to see our language relating to ‘self-directed activities’ adopted in the plan. There is much more understanding expressed in the Plan that events and activities must be considered in the light of their possible impact on the visitor experience, and on the sustainability of such activities as well as their impact on the natural environment. In order to change a particular culture, or myth, one must change the language used by those within the culture. Change of course is an evolutionary process and there are many instances where one could say that the rhetoric is not yet matched by action – however if the language is more appropriate I believe that it is more likely to lead to desired actions. I’m delighted to be able to say that I believe that this is an area where the Society has had an important impact. The year has been a very busy one for the committee. Much of our effort in the early part of this current 2002-2003 year was of course directed towards our response to the draft Rottnest Island Management Plan. You may remember that the society made a very substantial submission to the RIA in 2001 when it called for public comment on various aspects of the Island’s management. The RIA then developed its draft document and put it back out for public comment in mid 2002. We then had three months to develop our response. The final plan was released earlier this year and is now in operation until 2008. As you will know from our Newsletters, and various media items, the three main areas of contention in the draft Plan were recreational fishing zoning and restrictions, sharp increases in accommodation costs and savage increases in recreational boat mooring fees. The RIA received more than 700 responses to the draft Management Plan. We understand that a large number of submissions focused on marine proposals and as a result the RIA withdrew the marine zoning proposals from the final plan and has since established a The RIA has also established a Marine Management Plan Steering Committee representing Recfishwest, the Conservation Council and others with technical inputs from Fisheries, CALM etc. which is made up of representatives from various stakeholder groups. Norman Halse represents Recfishwest on that committee. The task of this committee is to develop appropriate zoning proposals and exclusion zones. One of our strongly worded recommendations on the RIMP was that an appropriately qualified Board member attend any meetings held by advisory committees. This now appears to be occurring for each of the current advisory committees. I do think it is possible to see that there is a climate of more consultation with the public and with experts in various fields, and that consultation is having an impact on decision-making. The Society has I believe had an impact in this area. The Society was invited to take part in a series of meetings leading to the development of a Rottnest Island Interpretation Facility. Unfortunately the invitation to take part was issued at very short notice and we were unable to have someone attend. I then missed the second meeting, which was held on the Island, due to not realising that the southern bus drivers were on strike. The next meeting is this Thursday and I am intending to be there. I understand that there has been considerable discussion about what kind of facility is required but I will report more on that in our Newsletter. Government agencies do need to have a better understanding of the likely response times of voluntary organizations without an office and given the nature of the cycle of monthly meetings We understand from Jenny Archibald that the Board receives a report from the Rottnest Island Environmental Advisory Committee after each of their meetings. The Rottnest Island Marine Issues Advisory Committee is chaired by RIA Vice-Chair Laurie O’Meara. The large recreational boating community should be happier now that one of the newest Board appointees, Maurice Woodworth, is a man with considerable experience in boating matters. We were very pleased to have RIA Chairwoman Jenny Archibald attend our July committee meeting. Much of the discussion centred on the proposals for the hotel redevelopment - the public comment period having recently closed. We reiterated our strongly held concerns – as expressed in our written submission - that the possibility of a 100-room, 4-star hotel was much too big for Rottnest, together with our concerns about sustainability issues and the impact of staffing levels required to service the rooms. Jenny has kindly offered to meet with us again and we plan to take up this offer. Any of you who also made a personal submission will know by now that the RIA is to go head with the bar redevelopment and will soon call for expressions of interest, but will have more consultation with the public on the matter of the accommodation section. This is a very pleasing response to widely held concerns on this matter. The RIA apparently received more than 200 submissions – obviously with many others expressing similar concerns to ours. Rottnest does continue to incite passionate responses! It is perhaps worthy of note that except for Laurie O’Meara, the Board is now made up of members with less than two years on the Board. And of course recent Cabinet reshuffling means that the new minister for Tourism, and thus for Rottnest, is Bob Kucera. A Weeding weekend was held in October 2002 – and it has to be said that weeding is not so appealing as tree planting. We had a total of 14 people, who nevertheless worked very hard to reduce the populations of sea-spurge and wild cotton bush on Rottnest. Earlier in 2003 Norman Halse and I attended a small informal function hosted by the RIA for organizations which support the RIA in its conservation initiatives. Functions such as this provide excellent opportunities for networking with other Rottnest-focused organizations. The Society again organized two tree-planting weekends for 2003. We have only a very short window of opportunity for this project as we must plant between when the winter rains begin and when they cease. This year both weekends were in July. The first weekend saw quite a high drop-out rate as the weather was atrocious for days beforehand and on the Friday. We still managed to have 30 brave souls who willingly planted about 4,800 trees in spite of the weather. Forty-eight people turned up for the second weekend, when we planted 10,200 trees. Senior Environment Officer Harriet Davie told me on the way home that she estimated our contribution for that weekend in monetary terms as $12,000 – this a considerable contribution. It has been particularly satisfying – and fun – to have Murdoch university students become a regular part of our tree-planting activities. As usual on these weekends, there is a wonderful mix of people of various ages and backgrounds who all love what Rottnest offers us. This year I was particularly impressed with the children on the second weekend who appeared to stick with the job in hand pretty well all day. In December 2002 Jane Kos, Margot Penwarden and Eric Moxham attended a breakfast for volunteer organisatons hosted by the RIA on the Common at Rottnest – another opportunity for networking. I want to thank our committee members. Secretary Libby Ince, and Treasurer Margot Penwarden have provided me with a lot of support. We continue to benefit from Norman Halse’s considerable experience of matters scientific, and of government protocols. It has been very useful to have the perspective of artist Jane Kos available to us. Courtney Powys and Carl Dyde continue to provide thoughtful and more youthful, perspective, giving us the cross-generational balance that we need. And Eric Moxham, co-opted at last year’s AGM, has also made very helpful contributions. I’m grateful to all of them for their input over the past year. I also want to thank Margot for allowing us to use her home for our monthly meetings. As you may have read, Libby Ince and Jane Cos are retiring and not renominating for the coming year. On behalf of the committee I thank each of them for their contributions. We will miss them. Thank you our members for continuing to support our work for the future of Rottnest."”
|