Boaties high and dry

IN the nine months since major flooding at Copmanhurst, no-one has been able to launch a boat from the village boat ramp.

It’s not that the boat ramp isn’t there, it’s just that you can’t get to it.

According to Rest Point Hotel Fishing Club president Tony Mortimer there is a washout about two metres deep between the access road and the ramp.

“It is just ridiculous,” he said.

Mr Mortimer said he believed all that would be needed to get the boat ramp access fixed would be a few loads of gravel and some grass to stop it getting washed away again, but club members had no success in getting the Clarence Valley Council to undertake the work.

“We had a fishing club meeting over the weekend and there were about 70 members there,” he said.

“About half of them said they had written to the council about it.”

He said that immediately after the flood the council said it had received money to fix infrastructure, but nothing had been done.

“We wrote to (Member for Clarence) Steve Cansdell about four months ago and he was going to get onto it, but still nothing has happened,” Mr Mortimer said.

“Someone should have just bitten the bullet and gone in and filled it up again.”

Mr Mortimer said only four-wheel-drive owners could get their boats to the water, and they had to launch straight off the river bank.