FAREWELL SPIT

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32460, 21 November 1970, Page 18

FAREWELL SPIT

Permit for entry To protect wildlife in the Farewell Spit sanctuary from the. increasing number of visitors, access in future will be by permit, the Minister of Lands (Mr Maclntyre) has announced. • “When the sanctuary was created iri 1938 it was so remote -that it was not necessary to restrict entry to the beach portions, because few people went there,” Mr MacIntyre said. “But many more people have been going there in recent years and its attraction as a recreation area for summer visitors and tourists could have caused its original purpose—to protect the nesting and breeding grounds of migrant waders and other rare birds—to be forgotten. If this trend continued, one of the more important bird sanctuaries of international ornithological value would deteriorate under the pressure of uncontrolled use.” Individual permits would be issued to fishermen and to approved naturalists and scientists, while sightseers and visitors would be catered for under a permit issued to a licensed motor vehicle operator. Farewell Spit is divided into two reserves—one for preservation of flora and fauna (4397 acres), which forms that part of the spit above mean high-water mark, and the other for the preservation of. wildlife (23,210 acres), which includes all beaches and mudflats below the mark. Entry to the first has been restricted for many years be-j cause of the danger of fire.