SITTING ON THE FENCE

Girl died but blowhole fix ‘can wait’

MORE than 18 months after a teenager plunged to her death at Blackmans Bay Blowhole, nothing has been done to fix grossly inadequate “safety” fencing.

And Kingborough Council says the reason is it now can’t figure out who actually owns the land.

Maggie Lore, 17, of Richmond died near the blowhole after losing her footing in January last year. A metre-high wire fence is all that separates onlookers from the 20 to 30m high cliffs — and residents have demanded it be fixed.

Kingborough mayor Steve Wass indicated a fix was still some time off.

“The important context to consider on this matter is that the land around the Blackmans Bay blowhole is not in council ownership,” he said.

“Our solicitors are tracing the descendants of the original owners of the land so that council can commence the land acquisition process.

“At this stage, and taking account of the land ownership issue, council has resolved to wait until the Coroner’s report is finalised and made public prior to taking any further action.”

A Kingborough Council spokesman said the public wasn’t concerned.

“Council has not received any further queries or concerns about the safety of the blowhole area from the public, since the time of the tragic accident last year.”

But Kingborough Councillor Dean Winter said the council had been maintaining the fence for decades and it was common sense that it could upgrade it.

“Eighteen months after the tragedy, the situation is arguably worse than it was to start with.

“The council is not taking responsibility for the site and that concerns me,” he said.

“We are talking about a cliff face surrounded by residential housing, so it is true that it can never be made absolutely safe.

“But at the same time, it is not appropriate that the fence line is so low it can be stepped over in some places.

“The coroner’s report should be prioritised so that, as a minimum, recommendations can be enacted before the summer.

“While the report of the coroner will be important, it should not have precluded reasonable steps from being taken to improve safety in the short term.”

Elsje Steen, 66, who has lived in the Kingston Beach area her whole life, said safety at the blowhole could be improved.

“You can’t stop people risktaking, you’re not going to build massive fences to do that, but they could look at appropriate height fences further back with warning signs,” Ms Steen said.

“Rather than just written signs, there needs to be visual signs that can be interpreted by people who are not literate or speak another language.”