Boa owners threaten to defy a ban on access to the largest lake in Australia, which was commissioned by Aboriginal groups who say that it has sacred value.
A new management plan designed by the South Australian government and the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation forbids all recreational access to the Lake Eyre Basin.
Lake Eyre is usually dry, but about once a decade there is sufficient flood water to make sailing possible, and the basin fills about four times a century.
The lake shows a pink hue while the water evaporates, due to a pigment found in the salt -loving algae, Dunaliella Salina.
The Lake Eyre Yacht Club represents those boat users who travel to the lake in Noord -Zuid -Australia to enjoy the rare miracle of the full lake, and it is strongly opposed to future forbidden.
National Parks and Wildlife Services Programs Manager Jason Irving said that the ban was primarily about public safety.
“Vaarde on the lake can be extremely dangerous because it is huge and has considerably variable weather conditions, making it easy to be disoriented and to get lost,” Mr. Irving said.
Lake Eyre Yacht Club Commodore Bob Backway remains challenging and claims that he will challenge the ban and continue to sail on the lake when the waters arrive.
Lake Eyre attracts a maximum of 25,000 visitors in flood years, about five times more than normal
Visitors to Lake Eyre are limited to viewing the site from the air or nearby viewing platforms
'They can forbid us everything they like, but we are going to brave it. The defendation is our best move. It has worked in the past, “he told the Australian.
“It is absolutely no sense because this current state government has an agenda.”
Mr Backway told Daily Mail Australia the only proof that was produced by the NPWs of Environmental Damage On the site was 'Footprints on the muddy coast'.
He added that all Australians have a cultural claim on the site, not just the Arabana people.
“If you don't know that Lake Eyre is part of Australian culture since the 1950 flood, you have missed something,” said Mr Backway.
“The lake is just as important for all Australians in the same way as another icon, Ayers Rock.”
In a statement on its website, the Yacht Club says: 'Australia is a multicultural society. Allowing one culture to fully control a national park is discriminatory and divided '.
'We also have our own cultural heritage. It feels like ours are the only voices that are not listened to in this process. '
Backway said that club members are aware of the environmental meaning of the site.
'We are very careful when we sail not to disturb anything, we would never land on islands where birds nest, we know what we are doing.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said that the ban was the last in a campaign of 'locking' important sites
Former South Australian opposition leader David Speirs said that Bans should be a 'last resort'
During most days of the year, the 9,500 square kilometer Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Lake system is an uninterrupted piece of dry outback.
When it floods every few years, the Salt Lake attracts 25,000 visitors, five times as much in non-flickering years.
When the prohibition drove for the first time last year, Shadow Minister of Native Australians Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said that the move was part of a broader attack on areas of national significance.
“This trend is going on in our country, where we lock up the place of visitors who can see our own backyard,” she told 2GB Radio.
“We shoot ourselves in the foot when we continue with this path where we will limit access to the potential for tourism.”
Former South Australian opposition leader David Speirs meanwhile said that final locations should 'always be a last resort for the public'.
“It is only because of safe and sensitive access to our national parks that we can really give people the opportunity to understand nature and sites of scientific and cultural meaning,” he said.
“Unproven tradition and anecdotal stories may not be used to lock certain groups from our natural environment based on race, if this becomes usual, the outcome will enjoy much fewer people and appreciate our natural world.”
The indigenous title rights of the Arabana people in the region were recognized in 2012
Social media users have repeated these worries since the prohibition announced, and claimed that the public has an interest in accessing the natural resources of the country.
“Lake Eyre is beautiful and a natural miracle,” said a user.
“To ban us at the same time to explore and enjoy our country is a crime.”
Another prohibition called an 'absurdity', the addition of residents will soon not be able to 'venture somewhere in our country or it will cost us if we do'.
The native title ownership of Arabana People about the country was first recognized by the courts in 2012 after a 14-year legal battle.
The area, more than one and a half times as big as Switzerland, is claimed by Arabana as of holy significance.
After the determination of the indigenous title, Aaron Stuart, chairman of Arabana Aboriginal Corporation, said the Herald Sun that he was 'happy that people come and enjoy this country and see the lake, swimming and the beauty of it, but we do not want a boats on the lake'.
The new management plan, partly conceived by its group, seems to go one step further in the prohibition of all physical access.
Asked what consequences can be for people who break the Lake Eyre Access Ban, a spokesperson for the SA department for the environment and water told the recreational activities of Daily Mail Australia, such as sailing, swimming and driving, since 1985 on Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre are forbidden. '
“People who do this run the risk of being fined or continued under the National Parks and Wildlife ACT 1972.”
NPWS SA and the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation were contacted by Daily Mail Australia.
