I am a recent boat owner in North Arm Cove. The purchase of the boat included a mooring near Water Street which I was fortunate enough to have transferred. In August 2023 I submitted the - Application for Relocation of private Mooring within the same Mooring Area Code. Our code is TS. The criteria for the relocation of the mooring is.
1: Have an existing Private Mooring License in the mooring area selected.
2: Want to relocate to a different site within the same mooring area.
After months (now 8 months) of waiting there is no progress.
If anyone else is on the waiting list or have given up in frustration I would be pleased to hear from you. With no boat ramp or Jetty ever likely to happen in the Village we cannot at this time even successfully apply for a mooring. If you want to purchase or sell a boat on a mooring, beware as you will not be entitled to the mooring.
I wrote to News Of The Area and Kate Washington with my concerns relating to my application to move my mooring and others on the waiting list for a mooring.
I have now prepared another article relating to Seagrass. Moorings in NAC and Port Stephens are not located in Seagrass areas.
I am having the same issue…
I am having the same issue and have been waiting for a mooring approvals for several months now and remain on the waiting list. If I can assist in any way to get this moving forward please let me know. Shaun
This is a serious problem…
This is a serious problem and one typically created by an obstinate and disconnected bureaucracy.
(I have had a mooring in the Cove for a number of years. It is close to oyster leases which concerns me. My application to move it a while ago to a position further out and between two other existing moorings was rejected by Marine Parks because of the threat to seagrass in an area that has been occupied by moorings for decades.)
The RMS has been firmly stomped on by Marine Parks NSW which now seems to lay down the law on what can and can't be done everywhere. And Marine Parks seems very determined to use every means available to push boat owners off swing moorings and into marinas. Even if there were sufficient marina berths to accommodate every boat (which is very, very far from the case), such pressure will relegate boat ownership back to the situation that existed when I was younger. One when only the vey wealthy could afford a boat. The average family will have no chance of indulging in boating pursuits in the future.
I think there were five commercial slipways in Port Stephens when I came to live in Port Stephens. Now only two serious contenders remain, the others having been killed off either by the costs of meeting environmental regulations or by owners capitalising on waterfront real estate values.
Meanwhile, as you have said, the boat retailers continue to flood the market with thousands of new vessels annually without mentioning to new unsuspecting owners the dearth of affordable accommodation or servicing facilities, or without campaigning government agencies to adopt a more considered and considerate approach to the problems/costs of boat ownership. (Boat owners have no representative body in this area.)
I am the first to agree that the history of boating in NSW leaves a sad legacy regarding environmental protection and that much has to change to ensure that there is a healthy future for our waterways. But the responsible government agencies need to figure a better and fairer way of managing the waterway resources. And of explaining to the boating public what they are doing and why.