DEAR News Of The Area,

Further to the letter by John Clarke of Fingal Bay I would like to offer a possible solution to the jetski problem in Port Stephens, in particular over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.

However I must admit that in the 1958/59 period I had one of the first speed boats in Port Stephens.

I built a speed boat with a Holen motor in it.

It made plenty of noise.

Outboard motors were not readily available at that time.

To help solve the problem I have two suggestions:

(1) All waters of Port Stephens west of the Nelson Marina, including the Myall River to the Bridge at Tea Gardens, to Soldiers Point and if necessary beyond, be limited to a speed of 10 knots.

This includes all boats and or other water craft, other than Police or rescue boats.

(2) A proposed jet ski area and extended swim zone at Little Beach. The proposed jet ski zone is limited to the northern end of Little Beach. A strip of beach say 30 metres wide for an exclusive jet ski take off and landing area.

The existing boat launch ramp will be continued to be used as is.

Better and new beach signage needs to be installed to clearly identify beach zones and the area usage.

A point of interest is that in 1970 when I built my house in Nelson Bay there was no sand north of the existing jetty on Little Beach.

What Little beach gained Shoal Bay lost.

Regards,
Geoff GEOFF MCCLELLAND,
Nelson Bay.