Popular Preston Beach could be the first piece of WA coastline where 4WD drivers have to pay to access facilities.
Visitors to the beach swelled during the 2023/24 Christmas period with volunteers, ranger and Shire staff struggling to keep up with demand.
Council documents reveal that during this period toilets were blocked, visitors used the dunes as toilets, skip bins were filled to overflowing and the beach was overcrowded which made the sand soft and increased the amount of cars getting bogged.
“And there were some of the usual instances of stealing signs, speeding on the beach, drunken disorderly, fighting and other anti-social behaviours,” the documents stated.
Shire of Waroona president Mike Walmsley told the ABC local ratepayers would not be charged to go onto Preston Beach but it might be “inevitable” that visitors would have to make a financial contribution.
“If I could describe to you the state of some of public toilets … it is mind-boggling why people would go to such an effort to do what they do,” Mr Walmsley said.
Documents showed that fixing the plumbing and collecting the skip bins cost the Shire a whopping $6000 over the festive period.
The Shire’s Preston Beach Management plan proposed introducing a paid permit / QR code system for the camping area and BBQs.
Other proposed changes include:
- The installation of traffic monitoring coils to report the number of cars on the tracks;
- CCTV number plate recognition.
A post about the plan on the Tims Thicket White Hills responsible 4WD group drew a mixed response.
“Bloody good idea, why should local ratepayers bear the brunt of the cost because non-locals use and abuse it,” one man wrote.
“Unfortunately the way a lot of the 4WDing community conducts itself, this response IS warranted,” another added.
“Why should we pay for something we all own? Our 4wd cub has tried for years to be able to maintain the beach at Preston free of charge including clean-ups but the shire/ council would not play ball,” another disagreed.
“What a f*cking joke. Preston has become busy because of the road closure to White Hills. If this happens other councils will follow and that will be the end to beach fishing in this state,” another wrote.