The Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) is beginning work to develop the first-ever South Australian Recreational Boating Safety Strategy.
The strategy will guide the decisions and actions of the Government over the next five years to create improved marine safety for recreational boaters, ensuring all users can share and enjoy our waterways safely.
Why we need a South Australian Recreational Boating Safety Strategy
In South Australia we have approximately 5,000 km of coastline waters and 700 km of the River Murray plus a range of other rivers, lakes and reservoirs that recreational boaters and other water users enjoy daily including fishing, cruising, paddling and water skiing.
There are over 300,000 boat licence holders and more than 55,000 registered vessels in South Australia. There is also an increasing number of vessels using our waterways that do not require registration such as canoes, kayaks, surf skis, kiteboards and paddleboards.
Statistics show there have been 69 people that have lost their lives in drowning-related incidents involving boats and watercraft over the last 20 years with 13 of these deaths occurring in the last five years.
Your input is important
Gathering feedback from the community, waterway users and marine stakeholders is critical to the development of an effective and robust strategy.
We wish to invite your company to provide feedback about recreational boating safety in South Australia via the online survey.
A link to the survey, information about the consultation and a background paper is available here. Any further feedback can be provided via email at DIT.MarineSafety@sa.gov.au.
To further promote engagement, we would appreciate you sharing the opportunity for your customers to provide feedback. We are looking to gain the views of a wide cross-section of the recreational boating community and waterway users. The feedback provided will help us develop a draft strategy for further public consultation next year.
This initial consultation closes on 5 January, 2024. Thank you in advance for helping us improve marine safety for recreational boaters.