An Aussie River.

[hairymick]

Hi guys, just a few piccies I took on our Burrum River today. Not a big river by any standard, about 30 miles long with a couple of others flowing into it near the mouth. For us though, it is a little piece of paradise. There is no industry or high rise on its banks, nor is there any urban sprawl. A small town at it mouth, Burrum Heads - permanent population about a thousand with probably another couple of hundred people living along its banks.

I took my Dad fishing there in his little aluminium dingy today. He is 87 years old and has lived on this river for about 40 years. He knows it like the back of his hand.

Here he is, I call this one An old man on the Burrum.

Many of the houses have little camps on the bank like this where the owners can sit a while and watch the tide come and go and maybe, pull a couple of fish

Here is a style of house we call a Queenslander. because of its high pitched roof in conjunction of the verandah on all four sides.

 

[JEM]

beautiful!

 

[catfish]

mick nice looking water & house , looks like somewhere i could live.

ur dad cuold probally teach all of us a thing or too. (cat)

 

[stevesteve]

Beautiful place Mick.

How does access to water work in Oz? Do you need a license to put a boat in the river?

 

[BEARS BUDDY]

Nice photos.

 

[bearridge]

How does access to water work in Oz? Do you need a license to put a boat in the river?

Friend double steve,

When I first read that, it made me mitey sad. I will be even sadder if the answer aint "nope". Over here ya kin paddle anywhere the water iz navigable...which cuts out small lakes 'n some small creeks.

I fear yer gwine ta tell us ya gotta have one over there. :cry:

a concerned
bearridge

Born often under another sky, placed in the middle of an always moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything, he grows accustomed only to change, and ends by regarding it as the natural state of man. He feels the need of it, more he loves it; for the instability; instead of meaning disaster to him, seems to give birth only to miracles all about him. Alexis de Tocqueville

 

[hairymick]

Hi Guys.

I bloody love my river.

Steve, Short answer is Nope as Bear hoped for. The only license you need in Queensland is for a power boat with over 6 horsepower. sort of like a driver's license.

Re the waterways,

Several things apply here.

If the waterways are tidal, ya can go anywhere on them, military restricted areas being the exception.

Land adjacent to tidal waters, is Crown Land up to and including the mean high tide mark. That means, that in Oz, there are no private beaches. anybody can go anywhere on any beach. This includes the banks of rivers up to the level of high tide.

Non - Tidal rivers, pretty much the same applies. Anyone can go any where on any river. There are no privately owned rivers or sections of rivers here. If say, a farmer owns the land on both sides of a river (as is often the case) that is all he owns. He doesn't own the water flowing through his land and has no right to control access on it. He does however have the right to control who goes onto his land.

Our man made lakes and dams are controlled by the government body that built it or is responsible for its up keep. Generally speaking, no licensing is required to use these waterways either. A permit can be required to fish them, if they are designated stocked impoundment.

The money raised from the issue of these permits goes straight back into the fish stocking programme. (about $35.00 per year here)

 

[catfish]

mick how did u say we can get ur laws shipped over here in the states. it show ain,t that way over here is it guys. it should be as long as there is water u have a right to paddle , but not so every where. i admit the land owner should have the rights on his land along a stream but not in stream bed!!!!! :x (cat)

 

[Anonymous]

river

Beautiful streach of river Mick. Would like to be able to float it .


Seams the only thing missing from that river [compared to those in the U.S.] is.

1. A fleet of drunks in overpowered boats.
2. A HUGE amount of trash and junk cars lining the river making it look like a garbage dump.
2. Several people with cane poles and beer coolers throwing the trash in the river.
3. Factories lining each bank with discharge pipes spewing "whatever" it is into the river.


I truly fear for the health of many of the rivers and smaller streams in the U.S. We [as a nation] seam to be completly unable to educate the people about the need to NOT TRASH the area we use for recreation.

 

[bearridge]

Friend catfish,

That iz the way it iz round here. The bank landowner owns ta the center of the river 'er lake, but they caint stop folks frum usin' the water....so long az the water iz "navigable". Ya see some small private lakes, but most rivers iz navigable. Far az I know that iz purty much true in all 48 states. :wink:

regards
bearridge

If it ain't broke, fix it till it is. U.S. Government regulation

 

[JEM]

Where I live is kinda unique. Many rivers within a short driving distance. One nice small lake by my work that power boaters don't frequent.

But in my immediate area (5-10 minutes), it's mostly man-made reservoirs. You can only launch from a designated spot and there's no (intentional) swimming. HP size restricted to 50hp. Nice sized pan fish and small small lake bass. Catch and release or keep.

I have to buy a launch permit. $50 a year for unlimited access to 3 large reservoirs that would take 2-5 days of paddling to fully explore the shores of. That money maintains a specific canoe/kayak launch ramp and it's a rare thing to see any trash. Obnoxious power boaters are dealt with quickly and quite harshly by the parks department that runs the marina.

They have a national bass contest coming here in the fall.

So while it suck to have to pay to be with nature, it provides some benefits.

 

[hairymick]

1. A fleet of drunks in overpowered boats.
2. A HUGE amount of trash and junk cars lining the river making it look like a garbage dump.
2. Several people with cane poles and beer coolers throwing the trash in the river.
3. Factories lining each bank with discharge pipes spewing "whatever" it is into the river.

We have got rivers like that too. :evil:

Our biggest and longest river system the Murray/Darling, that starts in South West Queensland and runs through New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia is now little more than a garbage and sewage dump.

The rivers that flow into Sydney Harbour as well as the Brisbane and Yarra Rivers are so poluted that the fish are unsafe to eat. There are plenty of others.

About the only industry the Burrum has ever seen was coal barges plying it when we had coal mines working in this area. The mines here have all closed now.

 

[catfish]

Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught
will we realise we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb

i got this off another forum , i believe this pretty much sums things up. :cry: :x when i was reading u guys post i had to post this one.(catfish)

 

[dawallace45]

there are no private beaches

Actually that's not 100% true , there are two exceptions that I know of and as far as I know they are the only two , both of them Royal Grants , both of course going back to about 1850's or so , with each of them the owners were granted title right down to the low water mark , I think one of them is south of the Yeppoon area , or it used to be , probably all sold up for development now , was a rocky shore line with only a small beach so it probably didn't really matter but the other was at Sandstone point near Bribie Island , and there the tide used to go out for about a Km or so and there were extensive oyster beds , the owners used to enforce it up to about 45 years ago but later let it lapse , that area has now been sold up for housing so it probably doesn't apply any more either or if it does could be tricky to enforce and no one would take any notice any way

Another thing that is interesting is with some of our far western rivers and I've actually seen this on the government maps and title deeds , where property boundaries were actually the centre of the river bed and the property owners were allowed to run fencing up the middle of the river , of course in these situations it was with rivers that only ever flowed every 10 years or so and there was often as many trees growing in the bed of the river as on the banks , I think from memory the wording was such that the boundary was the centre of the river bed or so many feet back from the waters edge when there was water in it , of course when it did flow it meant that all the trees and the fencing got ripped up and carried away ,

A mate of mine had a property bordering on the Maranoa , I read some where that it was supposed to be the second fastest flowing river in Australia [ when it flowed ] I hunted out there every month for 12 years before I ever sighted water in it [ and that wasn't much ] , my mates fences were well above flood level and just treated the area between the fence and river as a nature reserve [ and a good place to hunt pigs ] but some of his neighbours up river fenced right across the river and up along it , after they put in the weir it all changed , the first year the weir filled the water was 40 ft deep adjacent to the mates house , a few years later there was a wet year and the flooding carried down a massive amount of silt and timber , the water level was just the same but now the water was only a foot deep the rest was just mud , but a lot of our far western rivers and creeks aren't able to be paddled because the only have water in them every ten years or so and the amount of broken timber barbed wire and strung across them when they are dry makes paddling down them suicide when there is water

David

 

[hairymick]

Hi Dave,

yeah mate you are correct - again.

The beach at yeppoon was part of the Japanese Iwasaki Resort developement. In the late 1970s, the furore over our Bremier at the time, Sir joh Bjelke Petersen giving freehold tital to tidal land to a foriegn body - in particular, Japanese allmost brought the state government down.

Do you remember the resort being bombed?

Aussie feelings in relation to our rights to access and use beaches and waterways run very deeply. Any government or body that would think to remove these rights, in particular, in favour of individuals or coorporations having sole ownership of what is public property, would be doing so at its own peril.

Re our western rivers, Most of them are little more than drains anyway.