Unleash the chainsaws for the off-leash dogs
Four Mile Beach
Tempers are fraying on Four Mile Beach over off-lead dogs.
At the weekend one beach walker started taking photos of dogs off leads and their owners on the on-lead area of the beach, threatening to send the photos to the council.
At present the off-lead area is restricted to the beach south of Four Mile Park. The beach north of the park to the end of the beach at Island Point in the town is a mandatory lead area.
The off-lead owners say they would happily stay out of the on-lead area, but the off-lead part of the beach is for practical purposes blocked to many of them at all but the lowest tide. They say that since Cyclone Jasper beach erosion has caused more trees to fall across the beach in the off-lead area.
The off-lead area has a more easterly aspect and is less sheltered from beach-eroding wind and waves than the on-lead area.
One large tree about 100m south of Four Mile Park is impossible for anyone but the most agile to get past unless the tide is low. It is slowly sinking into the sand making passage ever more difficult especially for older dog-owners who need an area where their dogs can get a good run.
Other fallen trees and branches in the off-lead area are tripping hazards.
One dog owner, who did not want to be name for fear of getting fined, said: “We only go to the on-lead area when we are forced when the tide is high in the early morning. The answer is not for the council to fine dog owners but to get down here with some chainsaws and remove the blocking and hazardous fallen trees and branches.
“That would not only help dog owners who pay their rates and dog-registration fees, but would also help tourism."
He said that Pullman Sea Temple Resort’s beach path opens on to the off-lead area.
“They have lots of weddings on the beach and their guests go to that area of the beach but it is full of unsightly, hazardous dead branches and fallen trees. It is nothing like the clean white-sand beach you see in the tourist brochures.”
