Need for dredging trumps boat ramp
WATERFRONT residents of the ritzy Bluewater Estate have urged authorities to dust off their dredge as demolition crews rip down a public boat ramp.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads has sent in the wrecking crew to dismantle the existing ramp before a replacement can be installed.
Barron River MP Craig Crawford said the new-look launching pad would be much more user-friendly and take pressure off the overused option at Yorkeys Knob.
“Originally, there was no pontoon there, just a two-lane boat ramp with nowhere to tie your boat when you put it in the water if you were alone,” he said.
“Your boat just floated while you bolted to park the car 200m away.
“Then you’d come back and hope your boat was still in the same spot.
“Fishing and boating groups have been very vocal about wanting a pontoon down there.”
Paul Harris has been watching the heavy machinery chipping away at the jetty from his Riverside Pde home across the marina, wondering why more boaties are being encouraged to enter the water when his million-dollar boat is often beached on mud.
The Cairns Post reported on the plight of the unwitting “mud skipper” in July last year after he complained his 12m Riviera motor yacht was often rendered unusable due to a lack of dredging, despite paying exorbitant dredging fees to Cairns Regional Council.
Six months later, not much has changed – except a troop of his neighbours have come on board.
“We’ve gone to the council saying we’re willing to pay