Have your say
Macleay Coast Destination project draft master plan exhibition has been extended until 3 February 2023.
Thank you to everyone that came to our drop-in sessions at Little Bay. We know this project is of interest to the many locals that visit these parks daily, and the project team appreciates the conversations we could have with you about the ideas in the draft master plan. We recognise this is a busy time of year, so we have extended the exhibition of the draft master plan until 3 February 2023. Thanks to those who have already put in a submission. We encourage anyone yet to view the plan or put in a submission to do so over the coming weeks. You can find a copy of the plan and a link to the submission survey on our draft master plan webpage.
Macleay Coast Destination draft master plan
A note on the visitor statistics
Arakoon National Park is highly valued by its immediate neighbours and the South West Rocks community, who regularly visit for a range of recreational purposes. Some questions have been raised about some of the data presented in the draft master plan about current visitation, such as 'over half of all visitors travel more than 300 km to reach the area, with only 6% being locals' (live within 5 km of the park).
The visitor origin information presented in the plan was derived from anonymised mobile phone detection data by Roy Morgan Research and is the best available information. However, this data only relates to the area around Trial Bay campground precinct. This means it probably skews the data towards overnight visitors. The original statement was intended to illustrate the wide catchment for visitors travelling to visit the park and doesn't necessarily reflect the number of locals who use other precincts of the park on a regular basis. It is hoped that data coverage will improve in time to more accurately quantify the numbers of 'visitors' and 'locals' who use the park.
It is also worth noting that data from other parks monitored around the state suggests that the visitor origin profile for our parks is heavily influenced by how large the population is around that park. For example, Royal National Park draws 25% of its visitors from neighbours, while parks with similar-sized surrounding populations to Arakoon National Park, such as Bundjalung and Yuraygir parks, draw less than 10% of their visits from neighbours.
We hope this extra information helps you to interpret the statistics in the draft master plan, and we aim to make this information clearer in the final plan. Please be assured that locals' use of the precincts was front of mind with many of the ideas in the draft master plan, and we value your input during this exhibition period.
