Posted on September 21, 2017
By Cathy Stubbs, Daily Telegraph
A FERRY captain is under investigation by Roads and Maritime Services after he ran aground in the silted up Ettalong channel in July.
Fantasea Cruising which owns the vessel involved has defended its skipper, placing the blame squarely on inadequate dredging of the frequently dangerous channel.
The company’s head of sales and marketing Wendy Harch said the incident happened when the captain approached the channel entrance with no passengers on board at the start of the day’s run.
She said while stopped to consider if the channel was safe enough to navigate, the ferry was caught by a wave and briefly run aground on a sandbank.
The skipper was able to reverse off under the vessels’s own power and then diverted to Patonga Wharf.
In line with mandatory reporting, the company informed RMS about the incident which sparked the investigation.
“The channel is just not safe for our passengers or our crews,” Ms Harch said.
“We are in full support of our skipper and we don’t believe he did anything wrong.
“We need action to dredge the channel now.”
Ms Harch acknowledged that the State Government had funded emergency dredging in June, but that tidal movements since that time had simply pushed the sand back to the channel mouth.
Fantasea Cruising was recently forced to hand out letters to passengers explaining that when the safety of the channel was in doubt, ferries would divert to Patonga.
“We consider the conditions at the time — the wind, the swell, the tides — and make the decision based on that,” she said.
“It won’t be every service, but as safety is our main concern sometimes we will have to divert to Patonga.
“The information will be on our website and on our Facebook page and customers can arrange to have SMS notifications sent to them.”
NEW COUNCIL MUST ACT
Terrigal State Liberal MP Adam Crouch said the newly elected Central Coast Council needed to make solving the channel dredging issue a high priority.
He said there was funding available that council could apply for but he had been waiting almost a year for council to supply an estimate of costs.
“Now that there’s a new council it’s time for them to get on top of this,” Mr Crouch said.
“It needs to happen ASAP.
“Gosford Council did nothing about dredging the channel for five years — even though there was funding available.
“I’m very happy to support any new application for funding.”
STATE SHOULD PAY
Central Coast Council said it has applied to the State Government for the full $5 million cost of dredging the Ettalong Channel.
A council spokesperson said “council expected the funding to be forthcoming as dredging of navigable waters is a State Government responsibility”.
“Council has also written directly to the Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Mr Scot Macdonald, suggesting a working party be set up to progress a solution to this ongoing issue.
Source: Daily Telegraph
