Those of you who sail the east cost of Aus would be aware of the supurb
cruising grounds of Lake Macquarie NSW.

The current situation is
1. The channel into the lake is silted up to the point where anything other
than a trailer sailer is unable to navigate
2. Whilst there are good leads into the channel from outside there are only
Port markers through the channel with no markers showing the shoal on the
Northern side of the entrance. Any skipper who uses the leads to cross the
bar and then does not stay right beside the port markers will run into the
shoal; anthing other than a mild swell and you will broach
3. The ongoing saga of the twin opening bridges!!! A solution for this is
being discussed by the relevent bodies. The four options being discussed
a
a. A new opening bridge
b. A high level bridge
c.A tunnel under the lake entrance for the pacific highway (now that would
be ideal)
d. A mid level bridge with our local member saying that yachts can drop
thier masts to get under..yep you read that right...a channel that is used
by hundereds of yachts every year is going to have a situation where the
boat would simply lower it's mast, go under the bridge, then raise it
again....bloody hell, do they not talk to people before putting these ideas
forward.

This area is now suffering from falling numbers of visiting boats who bypass
Lake Macuarie and go straight through to NEwcastle of Port Stephens because
of the bridge and channel issues.

I urge anyone who has ever or will ever cruise the east coast to contact the
local member for this area and put your thoughts accross. If we bury our
heads and let things happen, it will be too late and we will all have to
craine our masts out and craine them back on

The local member is the
Hon. Milton Orkopoulos
Member for Swansea
PO Box 306 SWANSEA 2281