Carnarvon Blowholes shack owners take demolition orders to appeals tribunal

Carnarvon residents are appealing orders to demolish their 60-year-old shacks at the Blowholes campground that were deemed a risk to public safety. The Shire of Carnarvon earlier this year issued shack owners with demolition orders after a a building surveyor advised the huts were unsafe and not fit for human habitation. According to the Shire, the shacks — which were built in the 1960s — were also erected without the building approval of the Shire and therefore do not comply with building legislation. Owners have had 60 days to remove the 22 shacks, but some have instead decided to challenge the orders through the State Administrative Tribunal. In a statement, Shire president Eddie Smith said their decision was “unfortunate”. “Aside from being a financial burden on council, this may hold up the process of implementing the (2014 Blowholes Reserves Management) plan,” he said. “The Shire council is committed to implementing the 2014 master plan to ensure our whole community and visitors have the opportunity to enjoy and share what the Blowholes Reserve has to offer in a fair and equitable manner.” Cr Smith also called out those who had been spreading “disrespectful and damaging” rumours and accusations about the Shire’s management of the Blowholes campground. “There is an unsubstantiated rumour that council has given RAC an offer for them to construct a 500-bed caravan park on the Blowholes Reserve. I can vehemently deny and advise the community that this is in fact untrue and that council has had no communication with the RAC in any regard whatsoever in relation to a caravan park,” he said. “Council continues to work closely with the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage on an amendment to the plan to recognise a safe and suitable site for the proposed new chalets that is compliant with Aboriginal heritage, coastal and land planning requirements. “It must also be noted that the Blowholes Protection Association (shack owners) endorsed the 2008 master plan which then led to the development of the 2014 Management Plan to deliver the master plan.” Association president Shane Aylmore said the SAT process was the “only step (shack owners) can take” to appeal the demolition orders. “(The Shire) have told us we have got somewhere to go (to relocate the shacks), but it is very clear we don’t have anywhere to go,” he said. “The orders are based on the fact that we don’t have a building permit, but building permits did not exist when the shacks were built. It is kind of ludicrous.”