Small electric recreational boats will be permitted on Lake Burley Griffin under a draft plan launched (at the ANU boatsheds) yesterday.
The management plan was put out by the National Capital Planning Authority which has taken over direct responsibility for the lake and its surrounds from the ACT Department of Environment, Land and Planning.
The authority’s acting chief executive, Gary Prattley, said there would be three months’ public consultation on the draft, with public meetings and briefings by authority officers to affected organisations.
Under the draft, electric boats would be restricted to 3 knots (about 5.5km/h) and would require a permit. But details have not been worked out because the public consultation might reject the idea.
The draft allows also for traditional steam-powered boats.
Water-skiing would be restricted to special events, as now.
Other possibilities on the recreation side are: permanent marking of the Yarramundi Reach rowing course and better rowing spectator access; a sail-board landing site on Spinaker Island; more efficient use of moorings for active sailors.
The draft includes management of water quality, floods, low-flow, ecology, public safety and security, landscape, information, education and research.
On water quality, Dr Kevin Frawley, who is in charge of environmental planning at the authority, says the quality of the water is better now than it has ever been.
People often look at turbidity or refer to better earlier times, but Dr Frawley points out that work in the catchment and a more stable Canberra environment has made water quality better.
There would always be turbidity in this part of the world because of highly dispersable clays in the soil, he said. The fine clays came into the water and you could never get rid of it. In Lake Burley Griffin wind alone was enough to stir up sediment. Clarity of water was more dependent on whether there had been recent storms than anything else.
Micro-biological measurements had been very good this year, unlike at Lake Tuggeranong. That lake was newer and was getting run-off from newer suburbs which tended to use more fertiliser.
Mr Prattley said it would be hard to imagine Canberra without the lake. It was as much part of Canberra as the important national institutions which came after it: the National Library, Gallery and Science and Technology Centre.
The draft plan sets down a series of water-quality tests.
The lake would continue to be managed as a mixed fishery (native and introduced).
Some work was needed on vegetation. Underdeveloped parts of the shore were being overgrown by introduced plants such as hawthorn which was undesirable and restricted visual and recreational access. Under the plan this vegetation would be opened up and/or replaced by native species.
Use of the lake as an education resource would be encouraged by publications programs and interpretive signs.
Research by other organisations would be encouraged.