Private acquisition, but what about the public ?

The front page of today's Advertiser and the Adelaide Now website report a recent significant property transfer on the Fleurieu Peninsula:

The Fleurieu Peninsula's "magnificent and undervalued" land has prompted media owner Kerry Stokes to buy a spectacular 660ha coastal property.The Mt Scrub property has 2km of breathtaking coastal views at Waitpinga, adding to the 9km of coastline already owned by Mr Stokes on the neighbouring Balquhidder Station, which he bought for about $20 million in 2007.

Nigel Austin, the reporter, describes Mr Stokes' acquisition thus:

Mt Scrub, 25km from Victor Harbor, is an environmental wonderland which includes about 40ha of heritage-protected native flora and fauna.It also features the meandering Bollapurruda Creek and offers spectacular views over Waitpinga Beach, Parsons Beach, The Pages Islands and Kangaroo Island.

To those who don't know the area this may read like tourist promotion puffery, but anyone who has been in the vicinity will know that Nigel, apart from misspelling Ballaparudda Creek, is not too wide of the mark.

He has also provided some background material to place the purchase in context:

It will be run as part of the 3046ha Balquhidder Station, with cattle grazing becoming the main enterprise under Mr Stokes' ownership.Balquhidder is also considered to have major tourism and eco-tourism potential.The combined property will include several magnificent beaches and creeks. Mr Stokes, the chairman of the Seven Network and owner of a 22 per cent interest in West Australian Newspapers, also has extensive land holdings on Kangaroo Island.

If the area has " major tourism and eco-tourism potential"[how do the two differ?] would Mr Stokes, as a gesture of good faith, be willing to allow the Heysen Trail to be rerouted from its present inland detour around Balquhidder so that walkers during the relatively short May -November walking season can savour more of the "breathtaking coastal views", as Nigel so accurately describes them?

Update 1 June

The link to the SA Place Names online website appears be to functioning working sub-optimally at the moment. If you can't get through try this and see if you get the search page: http://www.placenames.sa.gov.au/pno/index.jsf

I've also included a link to the Heysen Trail and done some minor reformatting of the post.

Return to Deep Creek

Here are a few photos which I took today at Deep Creek Conservation Park.

I haven't walked there for some time but was, as usual, both exhilarated and tired by the experience, especially as the weather was sunny and clear, with a strong wind blowing from what Matthew Flinders described two centuries ago as "high barren land much intersected by gullies". Anyone who has ever walked, as I did today, through the thick vegetation in the park would query the "barren " but their aching muscles would testify to the accuracy of "high... land much intersected by gullies".

Development opportunity?

One of my favourite places is the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, where I've walked many times. I took this photo last November looking westward from Waitpinga, near Victor Harbor. In the far background is a property called Balquhidder, which , as The Weekend Australian's Property Section reports, is up for sale, and may be divided into as many as 76 different lots. The print version (at Prime Space p8) is illustrated with a very good photo, similar to but not identical to this one of Blowhole Beach at Deep Creek Conservation Park, which is nearby. If you're not familiar with the area Balquhidder is about halfway between Deep Creek and Waitpinga on this map.

One of the most attractive sections of the long distance Heysen Trail passes through the area, but at present detours inland to avoid several properties including Balquhidder whose owners have not given permission for walkers to traverse their land. It would be very good if enough of the new proprietors were to allow a re-route or loop trail which stays closer to the coast and allows walkers to experience more of the magnificent combination of beaches and cliff tops.