Camping at Cleaverville and Forty Mile Beach Beach allowed for next four months

4/6/99

The Shire of Roebourne will be able to permit and manage camping at Cleaverville and Forty Mile Beach for the next four months.
Acting Lands Minister Paul Omodei said today that the Department of Land Administration had granted the Shire a licence to occupy the two sites for a four-month period.
It was expected that during that period native title issues could be resolved so that the two areas could be vested in the Shire.
Cleaverville and Forty Mile Beach were popular camping spots, but the Shire had been advised by its lawyers that even though it did not control the land it could be held liable in the case of accidents for failure to prevent camping on the two beach sites.
DOLA was not prepared to declare camping grounds on its own authority because it was not in a position to manage them for that purpose.
Mr Omodei said he was pleased that DOLA had been able to find the way to enable camping to continue this winter without putting the Shire in an untenable position.

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