The La Balsa Bow Wows Dogs is a social dog walking group whose activities are centred around the Point Cartwright Reserve. However the council we have in place are now making similar noises in regards to other off lead dog areas around the Sunshine Coast that led to the ban at Pt Cartwright.

Here are the facts:

 The Point Cartwright Reserve has been a Recreation Reserve since 1933.

 Until recently dog owners have enjoyed off leash walking of their dogs within the Reserve from 4.00pm to 8.00am Monday to Subday. This included Half Moon Bay,

the Northern Beach, and around the Rocky Foreshore. Dog owners also enjoyed 24/7 access to the central grassy reserve.

 In June 2023 the Sunshine Coast Regional Council approved its La Balsa Point Cartwright Master Plan indicating significant restrictions would be placed on dogs off

leash within the Reserve.

 In November 2023 a draft set of dog by laws were put out to the public for community feedback on Council’s “Have Your Say” web page.

 The by laws proposed dogs would be on leash at all times within the Reserve and would only have off leash access to part of the Northern Beach between beach

access 196 and 196T, a new beach access point approx. halfway down the beach towards the Point. Access was time limited between 4.00pm to 8.00am Monday to

Friday. It also included a sunset clause for these arrangements to cease on 30 June 2025.

 On 18 December 2023 Council voted to adopt these by laws, which are now in place.

 Despite feedback to Council via their “Have your Say” showing that 72% of all respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the proposed by laws, Council

voted them in regardless. Councillors Dickson, Hungerford, Opray and Cox (did not seek re-election at the March 2024 election) voted against the by laws.

 The narrative run by council has been the need to protect the environmental and cultural aspects of the Reserve.

 Despite significant compromise options being presented to Council by the La Balsa Bow Wows Dogs to work in with other community groups Council did not see fit to

get these various stakeholder groups around the table to come up with a compromise option.

 We are well served with 23 national, state and conservation parks in the Sunshine Coast Region.

 Given the community’s access to a wide range of environmental reserves, the establishment of Point Cartwright as a Recreation and Scenic Reserve, 90 years ago, provides a key role for recreation activities for the community.

 The La Balsa Bow Wows Dogs group supports the intent to protect and enhance the environmental and cultural values of the Reserve but with an approach that considers all community user groups. 

 The focus of Council decisions must be to retain equity of access to the Reserve for Recreation by all community groups including both dog walkers and dogs with

disability and mobility issues, and dog walkers and walkers with mental health issues – and not at the expense of any community user.

 We are simply asking that the La Balsa Bow Wows Dogs get a fair go

 We note again the lack of transparency by Council in not making public a copy of the original and complete Cultural Report nor the “user data” for the Reserve, despite

repeated requests.

 We are willing to sit down and seek compromise with Council and other community groups.

 This simple process has not happened to date, with dialogue primarily being initiated at our request.

 We have previously presented compromise options for our need for off leash areas within the Reserve, which have essentially been ignored.

 Other than Councillors Dickson, Hungerford, Opray and past Councillor Cox, Council is not listening to the La Balsa Wows Dog group, and their 1,300 members, or the

Change.org “Keep Point Cartwright off leash access for dogs” petition with 6,198 signatures.

 Our Council Community Compromise Options presented to Council include: -

 Keep our dogs on leash on the paths within the Reserve.

 Our Off Leash options as a starting point for Council/Community Compromise

discussions include: -

o Half Moon Bay – this area is naturally contained and is essentially man made from sand pumped from the Mooloolah River mouth and the Spit, and has

minimal environmental value

o Grassy Reserve – this area has been extensively mined and has no environmental or cultural value given the significant damage this has caused

to the geography – noted in Council’s own Master Plan reports

o North Facing Beach and Rocky Foreshore – contradictory evidence provided by Council when there is no evidence of migratory shore birds at Point

Cartwright listed in the National Directory of Important Migratory Shorebird Habitat 2020.

https://www.eaaflyway.net/australian-national-directory-of-important-migratory-shorebird-habitat/

o In the Queensland section this Federal Government Directory notes: -

 “the state of knowledge of shorebirds (in Queensland) is high due to the long term efforts of the Queensland Wader Study Group” – refer page 9

 Migratory shorebird habitats are listed as: -

 the Maroochy River – page 151 and

 the Pumicestone Passage - page 173

 but none are listed for Point Cartwright

 This document is authored by scientific leaders in their field and endorsed by the Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the

Environment

 Why is this report being ignored by Council?

 We once again seek Council’s support to review and amend the newly implemented dog laws at Point Cartwright Reserve to preserve an off leash area for our dogs as

proposed in the above options.