Stockton Closure Gathering

[DGW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close DGW]

A worthwhile day for everyone who turned up despite the weather. Not sure of the numbers but Stockton filled pretty quickly, people were then directed under the bridge on the Koragang side and there certainly seemed to a lot more 4WD's on that side when viewed from Stockton.

When we left a bit after 10 to drive to Cessnock, it took me almost an hour to cross the bridge to the merge with the other group and a total of 2.5 hours to get to Cessnock then a 2 minute walk to the showground and 5 minutes to sign the petition.

Apart from the quality individual who jammed the UHF channel while we were at Stockton which prevented the organisers communicating with everyone and the Trolls providing lots of false info during the convoy, I thought the day went very smoothly.

A big thanks to the organisers and the 4WD Action team. Hopefully this many 4WDs will make NPWS take notice but time will tell. There was some talk on the local radio stations during the day about the event and NBN did an interview with Roothy, hopefully something positive on the new tonight.

[matt150 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close matt150]

Pics and video coming from me tonight !

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

Just saw this popup in response to some of Roothy's comments

There has been talk amongst members about a protest rally organised by a magazine company to be held over the weekend in NSW and there has also been mentioned about non participation by affiliated 4WD Clubs.

Please find below the response from 4WD NSW & ACT about the rally.

4WD Qld supports the decisions of 4WD NSW & ACT and encourage members to ensure that they do their own research before attending or discussing 4WDing matters of this nature.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Four Wheel Drive Queensland Management Team via email; [email protected]
___
Four Wheel Drive NSW&ACT (the Association) does not support the protest rally organised by Roothy and 4X4 Action Magazine. There are several reasons for this decision which was not made lightly and involved discussion with GSRC club Delegates at their recent meeting..

We have been trying to broker a meeting between the organisers of the protest, NPWS and ourselves. We have had no response from the event organisers although NPWS are keen to participate. In addition we must be mindful of the views of the traditional landowners - the Worimi people - on whose behalf NPWS manage the area as well as private land owners/lessees.

We do not believe additional access at this time is in the best interests of the sustainable long term use of Stockton beach for all user groups. The beach and associated dune area suffered severe damage and will need time to restore itself, if it is not given this time it will be lost to all for ever. This is not the first ocassion that such damage or restrictions have happened, it will not be the last and the best way to get the beach open to all is to let it to recover - a natural process which must run its course.

The main reason we have access to Stockton Beach now is because of the work of a few dedicated members of this Association over the last fifteen years or so. Their hard work has focussed on keeping this beach open to all, not just Association members. At our last quarterly meeting the Chairman of Hunter Region (Rob Kelly) tabled documentation including maps etc. which he offered to discuss with Clubs interested in using the area at its conclusion. NOT ONE SINGLE CLUB representative took the opportunity to do so. The Association has the latest information on its web site under "Documents" - Temprary Changes to Stockton Beach and Dunes..

Please be advised that the Association will not encourage participation in any protest where the reasons for it are not for the advancement of 4WDing generally and the organisers have either not undertaken appropriate research before calling for such action and/or are utilising the prospective event for "other" purposes. You will note that the document referred to above on our website is titled "TEMPORARY CHANGES" which of itself indicates that there is no intention to abandon previous access arrangements.

Craig Thomas
President – 4WD NSW-ACT Association
4wdnow

[matt150 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close matt150]

Big day today. I slept in and left home pretty late. I made it too the Cessnock convoy departure point about 715am. Samo and Chaser were there and we tagged along with the Lower Hunter Valley 4WD Club from Cessnock down to the rally point at Kooragang Island, under the dinosaur bridge. Our convoy snaked along thru to Kurri Kurri where we picked up more and more 4WD's as we kept driving. It was good fun bagging out all the Nissan drivers on the two-way while all the way, having a good laugh at the constant banter on the two-way. The police were great to us, no hassles or problems. My young bloke Jack came out of the day and to despite the rain, he had a top time.

The convoy broke a few times in he traffic flow, but we all managed to stay together in the left lane.






Apprently the police realised how big the gathering was brewing into and bounced the initial early gathering from the Stockon reserve park, the organisers decided that Kooragang Island would be a bigger meeting point to hold the gathering. Here is a pic from the gathering, with Steve M up the front and me and Samo, in he far right of the photo (my big head is in a red cap, wearing featherswords yellow work jacket).






John Rooth gave a really good speech. Explaining the issue at hand, with both humor and a level head. I was pretty impressed with his effort. About 3000 4WD's in total rocked up and everyone behaved well. Yeah the police and RTA were present but there were not real problems during the day. Rain made it nasty, but the turn out was brilliant....

My short video of Roothy : http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MpP4LpgPSbE

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

This is the desktop version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpP4LpgPSbE

Mike

[fourbyphil Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fourbyphil]

Hi,

I just signed the petition "National Parks New South Wales: Keep the Watagans and other National Parks open" on Change.org.

It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/nati...nal-parks-open

Cheers

Phil