Camping advice on ferry

 • Bass Strait Freight's Matthew Flinders III and the still to-be-comissioned Matthew Flinders IV.

By Tony Scott,
December 08, 2021

The Flinders Island to Bridport ferry operator says it will work with the Flinders Council to help educate passengers intending to camp on the island.

Flinders Mayor Annie Revie said there had been a big influx of visitors to the island last Summer on the back of the incentive of government subsidised flights from Hobart.

Publicity around the cheap flights it’s presumed led to a coincidental increase in ferry passengers travelling with their own vehicles.

“It’s good to have the visitors coming to our beautiful island, but it would be better if some of them planned their stay a little better.”

Councillor Revie said there were complaints from locals that people were free camping in coastal areas and sometimes leaving a mess behind.

“So we’ve decided to try to keep the campers in two or three designated areas.

“They can easily travel to other places around the island during the day but return to either Holloway Reserve at Lady Barron or the Emita Hall.”

“Eventually we’d like to provide some more facilities like showers and more toilets as well as putting something up at North-East River.

“There’s no rush for North-East River because there’s a dead whale on the beach, making it a bit unpleasant for anyone, let alone campers.”

Councillor Revie said the Island was conducting a consultancy on regenerative tourism partly to better align visitor expectations with what the island had to offer.

“You shouldn’t be coming here expecting the sort of services you get on the Gold Coast.

“People should have an appreciation of island lifestyle.

“The locals know what to expect and aren’t surprised if the shop’s not open on Saturday afternoon.”

The new operator of the ferry service Bass Strait Freight said it would work with Flinders Council to address the concerns, including by putting up some information posters on the ship.

Chief Operating Officer with the service John van Heurck said the company had enjoyed good relations with customers on and off the island since taking over last month.

“We haven’t yet but we’d like to meet the island’s shipping committee to talk through any issues.”

One area of concern about a bottleneck of getting fertiliser to the island seems to have been resolved.

A representative for Incitec Pivot said there were instances 12 months ago when fertiliser that had already been paid for, including for freight, by farmers was held up at the Bridport end for some weeks.

There were suggestions that passengers and their vehicles were being given priority.

But that had been worked through and Mr van Heurck was unaware of such an instance.

Farmers’ concern may have been focussed by the increased passenger capacity of the new ferry Matthew Flinders IV.

However, it has not yet been commissioned or taken over by Bass Strait Freight. 

Covid restrictions have delayed necessary inspections by compliance experts to allow it to trade.