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Convenor’s Annual Report 2004 As I report to you at the end of my 7th year as Convenor of The Rottnest Society I find myself somehow more uneasy about some aspects of the future of Rottnest than at any time in recent years. In other areas I think there are good things ahead for the island, and thus for the people of Perth in particular, and Western Australia as a whole. I sincerely hope that I am wrong, however at my age I have learnt not to ignore such feelings. And what of the evidence that appears to have induced this unease? I will come to that a little later on but will first cover a number of activities which have taken place during the year. I will briefly report on our tree planting activities for this winter, even though strictly speaking the June weekend was in the 2003-2004 financial year and the July weekend is in the 2004-2005 financial year. Both weekends were very successful – the first in spite of appalling weather which led to canceling of ferries, in spite of which 45 of the 55 people booked actually made it to the island. The second weekend saw 65 people arrive and take part in the activities. As you know the seeds of the native Rottnest pine callitris preissii and the Rottnest melaleuca lanceolata are collected on the island and sent to Bunbury prison where the prisoners germinate them and look after them before sending them back to Rottnest as seedlings for planting out. Committee member Chris Mews tells me that he went and looked at them last weekend and that although the plants are somewhat brown they have new green shoots, so hopefully they will flourish. We planted approximately 27,000 trees over two weekends. And for the first time we also did a small amount of brushing of the dunes in South Thomsons – that is laying of previously cut brush on dunes in front of cottages to help prevent erosion. As I have said many times one of the most pleasing aspects of these weekends is the great mix of people of different ages and backgrounds who come together, all wanting to put something back. Murdoch students once again came along in good numbers – a number of them for the second and third time. As CALM takes over management of the natural environment (as per the Taskforce recommendations) we will need to develop a relationship with CALM if we are to continue taking part in the revegetation programme, and we will be seeking meetings to discuss this in the near future. We hope that there will be much more support for this important programme under the new arrangements. Similarly with the weeding programme. We did one weeding weekend in November 2003. Our numbers are always smaller for weeding (fewer than 20) – it does not sound very inviting I suppose. However, it is always a good weekend, and we can point to a degree of success in relation particularly to the euphorbia paraliaisis or seaspurge. The first year we weeded for seaspurge we collected many bags of very large plants from the tops of the beaches – the seed, originally from South Africa has worked its way right round the southern coast and arrives at Rottnest by sea where the plants take root at the tops of beaches and in crevices in the rocks. Now we generally find hundreds of very tiny plants – once we adjust to what it is we are seeking, and slow down sufficiently to really look closely. We are yet to set the date for a weekend later in this year and will let you know via the Newsletter. The Rottnest Society is gradually moving more into the electronic age. As you know we applied to Lotterywest for funding to purchase a laptop and a multifunction printer, scanner, fax for the Society. We are delighted to advise that we have recently heard that our application was successful, and in fact the $3,459 that we applied for has been deposited to our account. The next task is to purchase the equipment. As I am the person who will be doing much of the work on the website, and who currently produces the Newsletter, I will be the first custodian of this equipment. It will give us more flexibility if we wish to make presentations, and to share information at meetings. The committee chose a laptop over a PC because of the flexibility, and also because when it is time to handover to new office bearers the equipment is more easily transferable. For example, if the next Convenor is already set up with a PC in a home office then this equipment will probably be more useful than another PC. If I am absent from Perth for any period of time the laptop could be left with another committee member to facilitate ongoing work in my absence. Another step into the electronic age was taken when The Society recently acquired its own registered Domain Name – rottnestsociety.org.au and associated email addresses. This means that we are now set up properly with electronic addresses as along as we can find someone to host the website for us. And we are most grateful to local company Internet Business Corporation, or IBC, for supplying free website hosting for 12 months under their Community Development Programme. Our thanks to Richard Keeves and his team for getting us this far and we look forward to working with them. We are also grateful to member Terry Lundie-Jenkins for his technical assistance and advice in the matter of the development of the website. Terry and I have more work to do together. Finding hosting is one thing of course but getting a website operational requires much more than that. The Rottnest Society website seems to have been a long time in the making, with a number of delays along the way. However the building blocks are now all in place and I am hopeful that the next few weeks will see significant progress. I have taken on the task (with Terry’s help) of getting it up and running. This means a significant amount of work to determine and devise content and to make sure that it is regularly updated to maintain interest. Once the new equipment is purchased and set up properly then the way will be clear to do this. As you know, it is twenty years since the formation of The Rottnest Society and we are now getting plans together for our birthday celebration weekend at Rottnest on the weekend of 29th, 30th and 31st October. We are planning a mix of interesting talks plus play time and that information will be available soon and mailed out to members. However, I do want to pay tribute here to the 800-odd people who attended the very first meeting in response to the Burke government’s plans for international-style development at Rottnest. I pay tribute also to the early committee members who did a huge job in helping to change government attitudes towards Rottnest through their lobbying efforts, their letter-writing and other activities. I am looking forward to hearing about some of it at Rottnest in October. I also pay tribute to all the people who have given their time as committee members since the beginning. I have come to have a much deeper understanding of just how much effort such volunteers often put in to all the myriad volunteer organizations that underpin our community, and to have a very healthy respect for them. Often such people are viewed as “trouble-makers” by government and others; as being against “progress”; and as anti-development. Volunteer organizations such as our Society find it difficult to muster the resources to take on government agencies, and in our busy lives a commitment to attend meetings even once a month can be a big one. However, Rottnest demonstrates how important it is that people do make such commitments from time to time. Think how close it was to being lost to the developers, and be thankful to those who came before us. The Taskforce recommendations have been accepted by the current government and implementation is well under way. I am not going over the recommendations in detail again tonight. It is important to hear our guest speaker, Paolo Amaranti, this evening – with an open mind. This will be the first time any of the committee have met Paolo and we are looking forward to developing a relationship with him. As the new CEO he is the person with the responsibility of putting into actions the recommendations of the Taskforce. I understand that there have been many staff meetings and many changes set in place since he has taken up the office. We believe that Paolo is living on the island with his family. A recent West Australian article and editorial have reported Paolo as expressing the intention of increasing the number of visitors by 100,000 per year. There appears to be clear acceptance that accommodation prices will increase to a point where more locals will not be able to afford it and there is an indication of more activities to attract tourists; more businesses on the island. Both the Taskforce and Paolo talk of the desirability of greening the golf course. And of course there is the recommendation for a 150 room “low-impact, eco-tourism development” and the designating of South Thomson’s as a “special accommodation” area – it is somewhat ironic to be confronted with this proposal in our 20th Birthday year. The Taskforce has proven to its own satisfaction that the infrastructure, with suitable repairs and upgrading, is not a limiting factor for increasing visitor numbers. There is no indication of any doubt about the capacity of the natural environment to accommodate another 100,000 visitors, nor any real concern about the possible impact on the social ethos for the 500,000 who currently choose to visit Rottnest. Nor does there appear to be any belief that proper scientific research into this matter (admittedly difficult) should be carried out prior to any effort to increase visitor numbers further. There also appears to be an ignoring of the considerable body of public comment that has been made over recent years by many individual members of the public and by organization such as ours. It appears that market research to prove that a“demand” exists for better quality accommodation and more activities and services is the reference point. It seems to me that the people of Perth and of Western Australia – from a wide range of ages and social background and over a long period of time - have been remarkably consistent in their expressed desires for Rottnest. This should not be ignored. Currently the number of visitors to Rottnest is 500,000 of which, according to the RIA’s figures 375,000 are from the Perth metro area. The Taskforce speaks of the competition for these people from other destinations in WA and other places and they predict that the numbers will start to drop off. This provides the justification for upgrading accommodation and the provision of more activities and services. I find this difficult to believe, given that a high percentage of the people who visit Rottnest do so in family and other groups so that there are always new generations developing the Rottnest addiction. We have said many times that Rottnest cannot be all things to all people. We also believe that Rottnest is a place which demonstrates to new generations how little we need to have a wonderful holiday – and I believe that this is a very important part of its appeal. These, then are some of the things which are the cause of my current unease. The Society must decide now what, if any, action it should take. Are we so concerned that we should organize a major campaign on this issue? After all this is an election year, and one in which the election outcome is likely to be a close affair. The committee will be meeting next week to discuss this matter further, however we want to know what you our members think. In closing I wish to thank our Treasurer, Margot Penwarden, for the continued use of her home for our monthly meetings, and for her continued support. Margot also undertook to provide all of the supper after tonight’s meeting, for which we thank her. My thanks go to secretary Eric Moxham too – Eric stepped into the breach last year, and for that we are grateful. Courtney Powys, who has found it very tay on the committee for which I am pleased. Sonja-Lundie-Jenkins was co-opted to the committee during the year when we discovered that Brian Hoey would be unable to take up his position as a committee member because of family commitments. Other committee members Carl Dyde, Norman Halse and Chris Mews continue to give us their input every month and I thank them all. We would like another committee member but unfortunately have not received any nominations so if anyone out there could afford the time we would be most happy to have you come forward. Thank you all for coming along this evening… |
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