Battle over Stansbury marina
Renato Castello
The people of Stansbury believe they have the good life - now they are banding together to save the very essence of what makes their seaside town so special.
The Yorke Peninsula township is rallying against a $30 million marina planned for the heart of their harbour, which they say will destroy their lifestyle and potentially their greatest commodity - tourism.
The Stansbury Marina Development Company wants to dump thousands of tonnes of rubble and rock into sheltered Oyster Bay and build islands for 201 homes, a hotel complex and berths for 68 boats.
If built, the structure would stretch for almost 1km across the town's northern foreshore and arch 550m into the ocean.
Opponents, the Oyster Bay Preservation Committee - an association of residents and business interests - are calling on the State Government to squash the proposal, saying it will decimate the environment and its tourism allure.
"The proposal is nothing more than a housing project on landfill in our Bay . . . it will dwarf the town," spokesperson Trevor Carbins said.
"Oyster Bay is a natural marine environment; once it's gone it's lost forever. We need to preserve the pristine marine environment." The marina project was first granted major project status by the State Government in 2007 for 100 residential allotments and a 100-berth marina but has since grown.
Oyster farmers also fear the marina could displace their leases, which produce an average 11 million oysters annually.
SA Oyster Growers Association Yorke Peninsula representative Steve Bowley said at least three leases would be consumed if the marina was built in its present location.
"The most worrying problem is the level of contamination, just the storm water runoff and e-coli runoff," he said.
"Oysters have been growing here since 1860 and it's called Oyster Bay for good reason - it's got great water for growing oysters."
ASIC documents show the directors of the Stansbury Marina Development Company are Robert Michael Gabb and David George Lucas - who were behind the Cape Jaffa Anchorage Marina project on the Limestone Coast - and Satish Gupta.
Planning SA is now assessing the company's own environmental impact statement lodged last month.
But residents are demanding Planning Minister Paul Holloway ask the Governor to invoke discretionary powers and refuse the application. "If this was put forward as a proposed development on Brighton beach and it would take up 1km of their beach . . . it would bring uproar and it would be rejected - we are no different," Mr Carbins said.
He said neighbouring Port Vincent already had a marina.
"We rely on tourism and we have got letters from Stansbury retailers who are saying visitors are coming into their stores saying they won't come here any more (if the marina is approved)," he said.
Mr Gupta said it was "premature" to talk about the project until the EIS was released for public consultation in the next few months.
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