Campers disappointed at new Walhalla law

A Baw Baw Shire local law that prohibits camping on land it controls, including land in roadside reserves, has been emphasised by council after a complaint by a couple that planned to camp at Walhalla earlier this month.

Mistique Stebbings, who now lives at Glengarry, said she and her husband were disgusted and devastated when they discovered they couldn’t camp in the township and claimed the ban would turn Walhalla into a ghost town.

Council’s planning and development director Leanne Hurst said the Community Local law 2016 that prohibited camping on council land was amended last July to include a specific provision for Walhalla that clarified that camping could only occur in designated camping areas or was permitted under the shire’s planning scheme.

She said the decision was taken after consulting the community.

The amendment was passed just over a month after a severe storm and heavy rain – 204 millimetres in 24 hours – caused substantial damage to local infrastructure.

The deluge washed away stone retaining walls along the main road and Stringers Creek, trashed roads, car parks and reserves, brought down trees and flooded the main street.

Community infrastructure director Cohen van der Velde said the designated North Gardens camping ground remained closed due to damage while council waited on repair funding co-ordinated through the state government’s Bushfire Recovery Victoria program.

However, he said Chinese Garden campground that was managed by a committee of management on behalf of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) was open for campers.

Ms Stebbings said she had camped at Walhalla from as far back as 60 years ago and often took interstate friends to Walhalla to take in the town’s history and attractions.

She said many of the local businesspeople were complaining about the financial effects the ban on camping in public areas is having.

Ms Stebbings said in a note she sent to council she believed it had “taken advantage of the COVID situation” to implement the ban and called for it to be reversed because the town “only survives because of campers”.