Dumping concerns at vacant Gnarabup resort site

Questions are hanging over how much some coastal residents care about the local environment after reports of repeated dumping at the proposed Gnarabup resort site. While developer Joel Saraceni believed dumping wasn’t a major problem on the headland, residents have told the Times they repeatedly saw residents — often people in the building and trades industries — using the vacant spot to offload waste. It comes as the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River noted an uptick in illegal camping and nuisance complaints in the area. Acting ranger services co-ordinator Alison McNally told the Times that since January, rangers had issued 46 illegal camping fines in Prevelly and Gnarabup. Additionally, five warnings were issued and seven of the total complaints related to areas around the resort site. “The overwhelming majority of illegal camping infringements are being issued as a result of the Shire rangers conducting daily patrols,” Mrs McNally said. “Officers are also responsive to reports of illegal camping that are made to the Shire. “Rangers may not always see complaints made on third-party social accounts so community members are reminded to please report concerns direct to the Shire so that they can be promptly responded to.” But rangers did not see dumping at the resort as a major issue. Local man Les Gaunt, who works nearby, said he’d observed people driving into the resort land on numerous occasions during the past few years. “The developers, if they’re serious, they’d chain that road off,” he said. “It’s really annoying. There’s people in there camping every week, even people in there with their motorhomes.” Mr Gaunt said he’d personally witnessed builders and tradies dumping work waste and he recognised many of those as residents from the area. “They say they don’t want the resort and then they use it as a dump,” he said. A major issue was dumping of garden waste, which spread foreign weeds across the headland. Mr Saraceni, whose plans for a proposed Westin Margaret River Resort & Spa and an associated mixed housing-and-tourism development is up for adjudication by the State Development Assessment Panel, said if dumping was taking place, it was recent. “I last was there two weeks ago and didn’t see any evidence of any dumping,” he said. Preserve Gnarabup was unable to respond before deadline.