A decision to ban visitors from carting fuel into the region’s most popular water holiday destinations has been labelled an “absolute joke” as uproar spreads throughout Orange’s boating community.
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Keen fishermen, water sport enthusiasts and holiday goers strongly opposed the news following an announcement by Reflections Holiday Parks CEO Steve Edmonds on Tuesday.
The statement explains fuel facilities at each park won’t be available from Tuesday due to an upgrade in the group’s inland park program.
At the same time visitors are not permitted to carry fuel via portable container into the parks for vehicles or boats.
The statement confirms Wyangala Dam as well as Lake Burrendong and Mookerawa Waters are involved in the regulation change.
Fuel facilities will be restored within parks once the new infrastructure has been put into place.
In the meantime guests are advised to fill their vehicles and boats at the nearest fuel stations.
“We are acting on expert advice to shut these down,” a Reflections spokesperson said.
“We were always going to be upgrading these fuel facilities and as part of expert recommendations their advice was to shut them down, they don’t comply with current Legislation and Australian safety standards.
“Considering safety is mandatory we just had to shut them down.”
This is silly especially if your boat uses tank or more a day
- Sharlene Field
The spokesperson acknowledged the parks’ isolation, particularly at Wyangala Dam, where whole communities rely on the service station.
“We are looking at options now,” the spokesperson said.
“It’s certainly not something we’d anticipated, we’ve acted immediately on advice to shut them down and now we’re investigating options to service our guests.”
The news has angered regular visitors to Wyangala Dam who took to the organisation’s Facebook to voice their frustration at the decision.
“This is silly, especially if your boat uses tank or more a day,” Sharlene Field wrote on the Reflections Wyangala Facebook page.
“How do they intend to refuel the house boats?” Ben Eade asked.
Several other Facebook users said they would seek alternate locations for annual holidays.