Frequently asked questions

What is the pur­pose of the project?

The aim of this project is to con­sid­er future man­age­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for the South East coastal lakes (Lake Bon­ney SE, Lake George, Lake St Clair, Lake Eliza, Lake Haw­don North), ensur­ing they are con­served and enjoyed by future gen­er­a­tions. The project is engag­ing with the com­mu­ni­ty and stake­hold­ers to under­stand how peo­ple use and val­ue the lakes, iden­ti­fy the envi­ron­men­tal assets, needs, and risks, and to explore areas for improve­ment in the man­age­ment of the lakes into the future. 

Who ini­ti­at­ed the project / what are the dri­vers behind the project?

The South East Coastal Lakes and much of the sur­round­ing lands are unalien­at­ed Crown land man­aged by the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice SA.

Iden­ti­fy­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to bet­ter man­age the lakes is not new and has been dis­cussed over a num­ber of decades. This cur­rent project is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring all the pre­vi­ous work togeth­er, along­side the feed­back from the cur­rent con­sul­ta­tion to deliv­er the best pos­si­ble man­age­ment out­comes for the lakes.

Will the project con­sid­er any oth­er lakes?

No. The project only con­sid­ers Lake Bon­ney SE, Lake George, Lake Haw­don North, Lake St Clair, Lake Eliza. A num­ber of oth­er lakes near­by are pro­claimed as parks under the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 (e.g. Lake Robe Game Reserve, Lake Haw­don South Con­ser­va­tion Park).

What are the phas­es of the project?

The project involves 3 phases:

Phase 1 was under­tak­en in the sec­ond half of 2022 and involved ear­ly engage­ment and infor­ma­tion col­lec­tion, under­stand­ing how the lakes are cur­rent­ly used and valued.

Phase 2 involves

Pro­vid­ing a Phase 1 report to the Min­is­ter for Cli­mate, Envi­ron­ment and Water

Devel­op­ing poten­tial man­age­ment options with the Minister

· Devel­op­ing a pro­pos­al out­lin­ing man­age­ment options for pub­lic consultation.

Phase 3 involves

Review­ing feed­back from Phase 2

Prepa­ra­tion of a con­sul­ta­tion report

Final­i­sa­tion of options with the Minister

Deci­sion by the Minister

What is the project timeline?

The project launched in the sec­ond half of 2021. Phase 1 was com­plet­ed in 2022. Phase 2 is being con­duct­ed now and an updat­ed pro­pos­al will be made to the Min­is­ter after its com­ple­tion, sub­ject to the out­come of the Native Title claim that exists over the region.

How will the com­mu­ni­ty be engaged through­out the project?

Phase 1 involved par­tic­i­pa­tion both online and in per­son through tar­get­ed meet­ings with key stake­hold­er groups, online work­shops and an online sur­vey. Input was col­lect­ed and col­lat­ed for the Min­is­ter for Cli­mate, Envi­ron­ment and Water’s con­sid­er­a­tion ahead of phase 2.

Phase 2 con­sul­ta­tion pro­vides the oppor­tu­ni­ty for feed­back to be giv­en by mem­bers of the pub­lic to the pro­pos­als document.

Who will make deci­sions about the future of the coastal lakes?

The Min­is­ter for Cli­mate, Envi­ron­ment and Water admin­is­ters the Crown Land Man­age­ment Act 2009 and will be the ulti­mate deci­sion mak­er on any future man­age­ment arrange­ments for the South East coastal lakes. Phase 1 con­sul­ta­tion has led to the pro­pos­als paper for Phase 2 on which we are cur­rent­ly seek­ing feed­back. Infor­ma­tion and feed­back from Phase 2 will be pro­vid­ed to the Min­is­ter to inform these decisions. 

Have deci­sions already been made about the future of the coastal lakes?

No deci­sions have been made regard­ing the 5 lakes that make up the SECL project. DEW is con­sult­ing on pro­pos­als dur­ing Phase 2. The Min­is­ter for Cli­mate, Envi­ron­ment and Water will make final deci­sions on the future man­age­ment of the lakes after Phase 2 feed­back has been col­lat­ed and analysed.

Mullins Swamp

Dur­ing inves­ti­ga­tions as part of that SECL Phase 1 engage­ment, it was iden­ti­fied that the land tenure of Mullins Swamp is dif­fer­ent from the oth­er 5 lakes and it is not sub­ject to a Native Title claim or utilised for pub­lic access and recre­ation. For this rea­son it has been removed from the broad­er SECL project, and its pro­posed future man­age­ment is being con­sult­ed on in a more tar­get­ed manner.

This process involves con­sult­ing direct­ly with adjoin­ing land­hold­ers and spe­cif­ic Mullins Swamp stake­hold­ers such as Coun­cil and the SE Con­ser­va­tion and Drainage Board. 

Giv­en that feed­back is being sought direct­ly from adjoin­ing land own­ers and oth­er key stake­hold­ers of Mullins Swamp, and the fact that procla­ma­tion as a con­ser­va­tion park will not change the cur­rent use of Mullins Swamp, we are not seek­ing wider feed­back at this time.

What is Native Title and how does it affect this project?

For a good sum­ma­ry we rec­c­comend vis­it­ing the web­site What Is Native Title? | SA Native Title (nativeti​tle​sa​.org) In rela­tion to this project, the Native Title claim for First Nations of the South East #1 is in the process of hav­ing the land in the claim area assessed for inclu­sion and nego­ti­a­tion on the Native Title claim. Large por­tions of the lakes may have native title exist­ing on them.

For­mal pro­tec­tion of the lakes under the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 will require sup­port by the claimants. The depart­ment has been work­ing close­ly with the First Nations of the South East dur­ing of this project.

Will changes to man­age­ment arrange­ments pro­hib­it cer­tain activ­i­ties from hap­pen­ing at the lakes?

Activ­i­ties cur­rent­ly enjoyed at the coastal lakes can be under­tak­en on Crown land or with­in reserves under the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. This includes recre­ation­al fish­ing, boat­ing, wind­surf­ing, four-wheel dri­ving and hiking/​walking.

Hunt­ing of duck and quail can only be under­tak­en on pub­lic land that is des­ig­nat­ed as a Game Reserve or unalien­at­ed Crown land that has not been exclud­ed by an annu­al gazette notice dur­ing an offi­cial hunt­ing sea­son (see list here).

Hunt­ing of fer­al species such as deer/​foxes by the gen­er­al pub­lic requires approval by the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice on pub­lic land. This is so the con­trol of fer­al species is under­tak­en in a coor­di­nat­ed and safe man­ner. For some reserves and unalien­at­ed Crown land the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice part­ners with recre­ation­al hunt­ing groups to under­take man­age­ment of fer­al species.

Cur­rent­ly graz­ing licences oper­ate on a num­ber of lakes, this is cur­rent­ly prov­ing to have ben­e­fits to the man­age­ment of habi­tat on those lakes. Any future man­age­ment options will con­sid­er the exist­ing and future use of the land in dis­cus­sion with the licensees.

Will this project con­sid­er water man­age­ment issues at the lakes? 

The pri­ma­ry aim of the South East Coastal Lakes project is to exam­ine options for land tenure and man­age­ment arrange­ments to con­serve and main­tain the coastal lakes into the future. While water man­age­ment is not the focus of the project, we under­stand that water man­age­ment is extreme­ly impor­tant to sup­port­ing the ecosys­tems and habi­tats at each of the lakes.

The South East Coastal Lakes project team is work­ing close­ly with oth­er areas with­in the Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water, the Lime­stone Coast Land­scape Board and the South East­ern Water Con­ser­va­tion and Drainage Board to share stake­hold­er feed­back on water man­age­ment issues and to ensure con­sis­ten­cy with com­pli­men­ta­ry water man­age­ment and infra­struc­ture projects (see below).

Why do the lakes need to be managed?

Across unalien­at­ed Crown land there are man­age­ment issues around unmon­i­tored camp­ing, dri­ving off track, rub­bish being dumped, cul­tur­al sites not pro­tect­ed, and con­ser­va­tion issues includ­ing dis­tur­bance to waders and migra­to­ry shore­birds. The Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 pro­vides a greater lev­el of site man­age­ment and pro­tec­tion for flo­ra and fau­na and than the Crown Lands Man­age­ment Act 2009 can.

How do we know what the native and migra­to­ry shore­birds need? 

Birdlife Aus­tralia

BONN Con­ven­tion on Bio­log­i­cal Diversity

East Asian- Aus­tralasian Flyway

Envi­ron­ment Pro­tec­tion and Bio­di­ver­si­ty Con­ser­va­tion Act 1999 Migra­to­ry Species list

JAM­BA, CAM­BA, ROKAM­BA Bilat­er­al Agreements

RAM­SAR Convention

Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Plan for Migra­to­ry Shorebirds

Why can’t we restock lakes with fish?

This is out of scope of the project and is not with­in the remit of DEW.

What about the water qual­i­ty in Lake Bon­ney SE?

This is out of scope of the project and is not with­in the remit of DEW.

Will the changes affect the way South East­ern Water Con­ser­va­tion and Drainage Board does its work?

No. The Board has statu­to­ry author­i­ty to under­take works as per the South East­ern Water Con­ser­va­tion and Drainage Act 1992. DEW is work­ing close­ly with the Board through­out the project to ensure that pro­pos­als recog­nise the Board’s ongo­ing work.

Will there be more camp­sites and bet­ter pub­lic facilities?

If the lakes are pro­claimed as parks then access to fund­ing through NPWS will be pos­si­ble, mean­ing that upgrad­ing and cre­at­ing facil­i­ties can be con­sid­ered as park of the parks plan­ning process. It also allows for improved man­age­ment of bad behav­iour and impacts.

Why is the Lake George pro­pos­al bound­ary not straight across the lake? 

At the moment it is an indica­tive bound­ary reflect­ing high val­ue areas to pro­tect in the lake and how these inter­act with cadas­tral data sur­vey require­ments, these will be updat­ed once final deci­sions are made. 

How will this project impact the Lake Haw­don North Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study?

The Healthy Coorong, Healthy Basin pro­gram​’s Lake Haw­don North Inves­ti­ga­tion is con­sid­ered to be com­ple­men­tary to the South East Coastal Lakes project because, if fea­si­ble and approved, it will help restore and main­tain impor­tant shore­bird habi­tat at Lake Haw­don North. Any change in man­age­ment as a result of the South East Coastal Lakes project will not impact the abil­i­ty for the reg­u­la­tor infra­struc­ture to be built. 

For more infor­ma­tion of the Lake Haw­don North Inves­ti­ga­tions, please see the Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water’s web­site, which includes FAQs on the project. 

How will this project impact the Lake George Flow Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study?

The Lake George Flow Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study is con­sid­ered to be com­ple­men­tary to the South East Coastal Lakes project as it is aimed at main­tain­ing aquat­ic habi­tat at Lake George. Any change in man­age­ment régime as a result of the South East Coastal Lakes project will not impact the abil­i­ty for water flows to be divert­ed into Lake George.

For more infor­ma­tion on the Lake George Flow Fea­si­bil­i­ty Study please see the Lime­stone Coast Land­scape Board’s web­site.