Sorry, I deleted part of the URL. It should be:
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/racing-carnival-poses-an-unexpected-environmental-threat-20161017-gs3yy5.html
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Shute
> Sent: Tuesday, 18 October 2016 12:39 PM
> To:
> Subject: New threat to Hooded Plovers
>
> http://www.theage.com.au/comment/racing-carnival-poses-an-
> unexpected-environmental-threat-20161017
>
> Racing carnival poses an unexpected environmental threat BOB BROWN
>
> As the world's best stayers thunder around the Flemington course during the
> spring racing carnival, spare a thought for a tiny bird that is punting on its
> ability to distract the predators which are driving it to extinction.
>
> Along the Great Coast Road between Warrnambool and Port Fairy is the
> Belfast Coastal Reserve: some 20 kilometres of beaches on the Bass Strait
> coast. This year this special strip of Australia's shoreline is in uproar
> and, it
> seems, it may have all come out of last year's Cup when trainer Darren Weir
> listed "training Prince of Penzance on the beach sands" as part of the winning
> formula.
>
> "I need the beach and dunes to be open," he has since said. "I can
> understand they have to close the main beach at Warrnambool over the
> holidays but if Killarney beach is closed, I'll be closing my Warrnambool
> operation.
>
> "It would be totally unviable for me to train in Warrnambool if we could not
> use the beach or the dunes for the full year. The beach and dunes have been
> the key to my success and others."
>
> So, suddenly, each morning there is a stream of semi-trailer-sized horse
> floats arriving on the Belfast Reserve beachfront and from dawn to mid-
> morning the beach is being pounded by the thunder of horses' hooves. It is a
> welter by the water.
>
> Local beach users, including bathers, fishers and the occasional pony rider,
> have been squeezed out: no warning, no consultation, no payment, no
> thanks.
>
> After a short period of astonishment, two nearby residents got together a
> community group to defend their region's prize asset – its beaches. Bill
> Yates,
> who lives near Killarney Beach at the centre of the invasion, joined singer-
> songwriter Shane Howard to set up the Belfast Coastal Reserve Action
> Group.
>
> Yates explains: "I visit Killarney Beach most days. Nearly 12 months ago it
> began to get harder and harder to find a park down at the beach. Horse
> transport trucks started turning up in large numbers at the Killarney Beach
> boat ramp. I couldn't get my boat in or out from the beach. Horse trainers
> were turning up en masse on our beach and the impact to the environment
> and the wildlife was immediate.
>
> "In the past 18 months there has been an exponential, unregulated, increase
> in the amount of commercial horse trainers accessing the dunes and beaches
> for track work and exercise. This has largely been brought about by the
> success of Darren Weir winning the Melbourne Cup in 2015 and his claims
> that using the area has been part of the reason for that success. This has
> resulted in conflict between horse trainers and other beach users and
> community groups that care for the environment and protect the wildlife.
>
> "In the past, small scale local trainers have used the beaches at times for
> therapeutic work. That is, low impact, water's edge, wading. What is
> occurring now is high impact, large volume, base of the dunes, in the dunes
> training at Levys Point, Rutledges Cutting and Killarney Beach. There have
> been reports of intimidation from trainers and riders towards other beach
> users and some are now reluctant to use these areas."
>
> Perhaps the most intimidated local is that tiny bird, the red-eyed, black-
> headed Hooded Plover that darts about the sand trying to attract attention.
> It is attempting to draw predators away from its eggs in its nest on the sand.
> As it fails, so it is headed for extinction. Pet dogs are its most widespread
> foe
> on beaches across southern Australia but now, on this shoreline, it is the
> thunder of horses' hooves for which it is no match.
>
> I am a Cup-lover and, in my Senate years never failed to run an office sweep
> or to have everyone gather round the television for the running of one of
> the world's great races. Nor do I think the racing community's invasion of the
> Belfast Beach coastal reserve has been malicious. It seems more a case of an
> out-of-control enthusiasm for what seemed to be a winning formula and no
> government supervision of the beach. But the public commons of these
> beaches predates even the Melbourne Cup and it is up to government to
> reassert the public good.
>
> If there is really an advantage in training horses on sand, how about the
> corporations buying their sand on the open market like everyone else? The
> locals deserve a fair go. That incudes the little black-hooded sprinter,
> weighing just a few grams which, fast as it may be, is no match for the half-
> tonne horses now pounding through its nursery.
>
> Sent from my iPad
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