Power craft are banned on Canberra’s three lakes, with the exception of some boats powered by tiny electric engines, two tourist boats and rescue craft. Power boats are allowed on part of the Molonglo River, just before it enters Lake Burley Griffin. Now there is a proposal for powered jet-skis on Lake Tuggeranong.
Several reasons have been put forward for the ban on powered boats. The engines are noisy; they pollute the water with petrol and oil; the wash of powered boats wrecks the shore line; they pose a safety hazard; they affect wildlife.
Perhaps some of these reasons need to be put to the test. Are the boats any noisier than the traffic that goes on roads near the lakes or over the bridges? Would they add significantly to noise and pollution that presumably comes from those on the Molonglo? Is the wash significantly different from storms? Does the experience of other waterways suggest safety and wildlife are badly affected? It may well be that opposition to power boats is a knee-jerk reaction. After all, the present motor craft do not attract much complaint.
Though the noise from ski boats with large outboard motors would tend to carry in the open expanses of water, it may be that some power boats, some of the time, in some parts of some of the lakes would not be intolerable. Perhaps the Tuggeranong jet-ski proposal deserves a short trial. We will not know without trying.