16 December 2011

Will we ever see the Cotter campground again?

| johnboy
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The Cotter campground was supposed to be re-opening in time for Christmas.

But now TAMS are giving notice that it will be shut until at least 31 August 2012.

“In October 2010, the Cotter campground was temporarily closed due to the increasing construction noise and activities associated with the enlargement of the Cotter Dam which had been extended to night works and occasional weekend works,” Brett McNamara, Rural District Manager, Parks and Reserves, said today.

“To ensure the experience of visitors was not impacted by the increasing level of noise and construction traffic, we decided to temporarily close the campground.

“The campground was scheduled to reopen Friday 23 December 2011 however, dam construction officials have advised us that due to unanticipated delays in the program, the Enlarged Cotter Dam project and completion of the rehabilitation of affected areas has been extended. As a result, the Cotter campground is expected to remain closed until Friday 31 August 2012 inclusive.

Frustrated wannabe campers can still get their tents up at Woods Reserve on Corin Road, Honeysuckle campground and Orroral campground. Not to mention EPIC for the urban camping experience.

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I love my own bed and the comforts of home. If you are 30 mins from home, why would you bother?

It’s 10 minutes from my place, but once you’re there you could be anywhere. Kids aren’t going to care whether home is just up the hill, or a 2h drive away if there is bush and river to explore and a tent with a fire. I can’t comment on the weekend hoon factor, but mid-week was pretty quiet.

The noise from dam construction is pretty noticeable when cycling through the Cotter and even though the blasting and excavation has stopped, they are still doing concrete pours 24/7.

dtc said :

grunge_hippy said :

I’ve never understood Canberrans camping at cotter. Surely if you are that close to home, you’d go home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a keen camper and we go away a lot over the summer, but I love my own bed and the comforts of home. If you are 30 mins from home, why would you bother?

Its good for kids. So you can go home if it all falls apart and havent wasted 3 hours of travel.

+1 As a weekend away with young children it does offer some good experiences that can be built upon. Amongst the well sign posted short walks you can visit a pumping station, cotter caves, fossicking around an old mine, visit the dam, hill climbing, fishing, swimming and the usual wildlife spotting. That is a full weekend of activities right on your doorstep.

If your lucky the kids will take to it and when they become teenagers, will disappear on their own adventures leaving you the house teenage free. How good is that.

grunge_hippy8:11 am 18 Dec 11

My first daughter went camping at 5 weeks old. My second not that long after being born either. I can see if you havent taken them camping EVER, then maybe. I remember my dad took us out to Corin once because I needed to learn how to put up a tent for a school camp so we made a night of it. So I can see that side, but if you’re going for a week or more, I’d want to go somewhere not that close to home…the temptation to go home to my nice soft bed would be too much!

dtc said :

grunge_hippy said :

I’ve never understood Canberrans camping at cotter. Surely if you are that close to home, you’d go home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a keen camper and we go away a lot over the summer, but I love my own bed and the comforts of home. If you are 30 mins from home, why would you bother?

Its good for kids. So you can go home if it all falls apart and havent wasted 3 hours of travel.

+1 on that. You beat me to it. It’s a very low risk camping gig if you have little grommets, or kids who aren’t too familiar with the whole bush thing. We were thinking of going out there sometime this summer, but we’ll probably go to Namadgi instead.

grunge_hippy said :

I’ve never understood Canberrans camping at cotter. Surely if you are that close to home, you’d go home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a keen camper and we go away a lot over the summer, but I love my own bed and the comforts of home. If you are 30 mins from home, why would you bother?

Its good for kids. So you can go home if it all falls apart and havent wasted 3 hours of travel.

grunge_hippy said :

I’ve never understood Canberrans camping at cotter.

Whilst it’s a nice spot, I have to agree that it too close to be out of the range of hoons and bogans to be considered a nice place to camp.

grunge_hippy6:41 pm 17 Dec 11

I’ve never understood Canberrans camping at cotter. Surely if you are that close to home, you’d go home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a keen camper and we go away a lot over the summer, but I love my own bed and the comforts of home. If you are 30 mins from home, why would you bother?

No Way, Get f&6ked. F*&k off.

The “for the safety and enjoyment of patrons” phrase construction is the current bureauratic fashion to baldly dump an arbitrary restriction on something without havin to offer any rational explanation or even coherent strategy behind it.
Just as love means never having to say you’re sorry, for a bureaucrat to say “for the safety and enjoyment of patrons” means they don’t have to make any effort to overcome the problem. Look around and see how often the phrase, or something like it, is used, and note how frequently it’s used to cover up someone’s total inaction on a problem.

“To ensure the experience of visitors was not impacted by the increasing level of noise and construction traffic, we decided to temporarily close the campground.”

How does that even work?

People might be slightly inconvenienced by the noise, so they are inconveniencing them even more by not allowing them to camp there.

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