Exclusive

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

A four-year battle to save Levy’s Beach/Tarerer coast from mass racehorse training is over, with a meeting of all trainers last night (Mon) voting to abandon the plan.

A meeting of about 40 SWOTRA* trainers was held to gauge opinion once and for all, and, according to a rock-solid source, it was decided by an overwhelming majority that they would no longer pursue access to Levy’s/Spookies Beach.

Trainers will instead use only Lady Bay, where numbers will be capped at 50 a day, down from 96.

The meeting, attended by an officer from the Warrnambool City Council, also agreed to lobby for better sand training facilities at the Warrnambool racecourse.

Hallelujah.

Common sense has prevailed, at last.

I could weep.

I could weep for that beautiful, wild beach, which finally has a chance to recover from decades of abuse and neglect and be nurtured.

It is time.

While the WCC is yet to formally vote on the plan, the trainers’ decision makes that vote a virtual fait accompli. It will happen quickly.

Last night’s meeting comes just three weeks after the council deferred making any decision on Levy’s so it could meet again with the main players, including trainers, and traditional owners who have been strongly against turning a precious slice of Country into an exercise park for racehorses.

Now it is done.

Now we will see an end to an ugly battle that has raged for years and savaged our community.

So many people – led by the steadfast Belfast Coastal Reserve Action Group – fought to stop the madness of allowing up to 120 racehorses a day, every day, to train along the beach, and another 40 a day to trample up and down the large dune.

This outrageous assault was going to be allowed all year round.

This was never a compromise: this was utter capitulation to the Darren Weir juggernaut that blew our community apart.

There are many things that I find unforgivable about Weir, and cleaving our community in two is one of them.

The uncomfortable truth is that if Weir had not fallen into his own vat of troubles, we would still be at war, such was his power and influence over our star-struck council and the racing industry.

Who could forget that terrible, “urgent” council meeting held just four days before Christmas in 2018, when the anger and vitriol spilled over for all to see?

It was brutal and ugly and so damaging.

Warrnambool, which has long been a racing town, was forced to take sides and friendships and families have suffered.

Now, to pull out a cliche, the healing must begin.

Levy’s Beach has to be healed and the hoons booted out through proper, serious enforcement. If you are caught being a dickhead, you are fined $3000 on the spot – that sort of serious enforcement.

And the training rules of Lady Bay need to be enforced and be seen to be enforced.

No more slaps on the wrist, no more relying on the public to capture wrong-doings on their i-phones, but instead an independent monitor who will release monthly, public reports via the council.

I recently found out through Freedom of Information that Parks Victoria planned to charge the Warrnambool Racing Club a whopping annual licence fee of $62,400 to use Levy’s Beach, such is the privilege.

Using Lady Bay for racehorse training is an equal privilege.

It is our main beach and it is our compromise, but it can only work if there is respect for the rules on all sides.

We have a chance to get the balance back.

This exhausting battle is over and – I hope – the war is too.

————

[*Trainers must be a member of the South West Owners and Trainers Association to access local beaches. The group has about 40 members, from full-time professionals to hobbyists.]

Thankyou to the Walkley Foundation for funding part of my investigative work with this on-going story, including expensive and time-consuming Freedom of Information applications and other research tools. If you would like to help The Terrier keep digging, you can find the Tip Jar here.

Letter to Warrnambool City Councillors 2 Feb 2020

By Lee-Anne Clarke and on behalf of  Elder Aunty Julie Jose and Tom Clarke

Today we are writing to you, as we are aware that there is a Warrnambool Council Meeting
on the 3 February 2020. On your Agenda for this meeting, you have listed 5.2 Horses on
Beach – Land Manager Consent Spookys.

Our interest in the Agenda Item stipulated is to add our Cultural lens and views as
Traditional Owners of the Kirrae Whurrong/Peek Wurrung people. Our view on our Cultural
Landscape; our Traditional Lands of Eastern Maar people.

We do not want commercial horses on the BCR – Peek Wurrung Dune Country.

BCR – Peek Wurrung Dune Country:

Along this Coastline beginning around Port Campbell, The Twelve Apostles (Kirrae
Whurrong) and Point Ritchie – Moyjil (Peek Wurrung), Hopkins River, Thunder Point, Peek
Wurrung Dune Country, further down Tarerer, right through to Gunditjmara Budj Bim
Cultural Landscape (Now on the World Heritage Listing), we have thousands of years of
scientific evidence of First Nations occupation.

This part of our Country in which we as Eastern Maar call our Ancestral and Spiritual Homelands. This area in which has been
recorded where our people were quite heavily populated and utilizing this are for
Traditional Customs, enjoyment, economy and environment, Ceremony and trade over
many, many thousands of years. In fact Moyjil being investigated and dated as old as 80,000
to 120,000 thousand years. Moyjil is around 5 kms from our Dune Country.

Does this not tell you something?

In the Reserve, it has been well known that firstly the commercial horse training has begun
and continued illegally for years and never reprimanded or picked up as an Illegal activity on
the Reserve within your Council.

During this time, there has been unsurmountable damage that has occurred that is
irreparable within the HH Track area. Ancient sands damage and artefacts damaged with
riders and their horses.

Within these Dunes, we have Burial sites, artefacts, shell middens, hearth ovens and
ceremonial sites.

We also hold Dreaming Stories. Dreaming Stories are Creation stories of the Cultural
Landscape. Dreaming Stories are treasured and held in high regard across the whole of
Australia.

We also have a healthy native wildlife and birdlife there who consider this place their home.
These animals and birds whom we are connected to via our Totems and incorporates our
Ceremonial dance, our way of working in synchronicity with Country; to sustain healthy
country.

We would like you to consider Peek Wurrung Dune Country to be delicately nurtured in way
of supporting Traditional Custodians and wider Community to care for Country.

Protection of Cultural Heritage:

In caring for Country, we would envisage, seeking governmental support, and funding for
this area. We would expect there to be a demand of Tourism in the area as there are rising
interests in Aboriginal Culture as is well received across other places of interests regarding
Aboriginal Culture.

We would believe the protection of Cultural Heritage needs to be recognized in this area,
for First Nations, and be given the opportunity to create an infallible foundation in looking
after this amazing reserve, and give the respect it deserves.

For the Protection of Cultural Heritage versus commercial horse training on sand dunes and
beaches these two are in direct conflict. There is greater support for the protection of
Cultural Heritage and Tourism.

We believe in investing in long term Cultural Heritage, as tourism is the future.

As to the industrialization of horses, training on our highly sensitive Dune Country and
highly concentrated Aboriginal Cultural Heritage our artefacts submerged within the ever so
sensitive BCR – Peek Wurrung Dune Country, would implicate further destruction through
this type of abuse within this area.

We are extremely concerned about the irresponsible destruction, damage and interference
the proposed activity will undoubtedly bring to our little and remaining Cultural Heritage.

We consider this our natural environment our Cathedral, our Church.

Our unyielding love for this Country has our Elders terribly upset, concerned, and have cried openly for Country
such is the love and raw emotion that genuinely attaches us to Dune Country.
It would be irresponsible for us not to speak out as next of kin of our Ancestral and Spiritual
homelands.

As a lure from the Gambling Industry, a consideration of a yes vote, would invoke serious
implications of the whole of the reserve as time goes on.
Please shut the gate on this now and save the little remaining pristine area that we have
left, the Belfast Coastal Reserve – Peek Wurrung Dune Country.

The statistics show the horses do not need this Reserve to use for their personal gain in the
racing industry.

As Traditional Custodians, in dignity, we would like to ask you to, please do not allow
commercial racehorses on Belfast Coastal Reserve – Peek Wurrung Dune Country.

Wurruk.