Short Term Rentals
Short Term or Holiday Rentals have been an issue in residential areas for some time.
Although most holiday makers do the right thing, a percentage seem determined to party
in an anti-social manner with no regard for people living in the area. Port Mandurah residents
in particular experience issues due to noise carrying over the water.
Over the last few years PMRA committee members and various residents have approached the City of Mandurah seeking a solution to the anti-social behaviour and the disturbances. Unfortunately no resolution has been found to date. The only advice given is to seek assistance from the Ranger or from the Police. These measures have proven unsatisfactory and ineffective.
Recently, two committee members met with concerned residents to discuss possible ways of handling the problem. As a result, the PMRA President has spoken to the City and met with a Councillor but no forward progress has been made due to the many grey areas in what people can and can’t do with their homes.
A report on Short Term/Holiday Rentals is currently being preparedby the Planning & Land Services Manager at the City of Mandurah which will be presented to Council in the near future. PMRA is awaiting this report and will be putting forward recommendations.

In the meantime, if you experience any issues please take the following steps:

1. Keep a record of the times, dates and issues experienced. Please click here for more information.
2. Photograph and video any anti-social behaviour. (Do a risk assessment first.)
3. Record any excessive noise and record the date/time/duration/type of noise. To download a Noise Service Request Diary please click here.
4. Obtain the phone number of the property owner if possible and call them EVERY time there is an issue.
5. Phone the Ranger and request that noise measuring devices be installed
6. Phone the Police if the behaviour is illegal or noise limits are excessive for the time of day/night.
7. Report to the Council in writing, by phone or by email and ask for it to be recorded as a complaint with the Customer Services Team
8. Contact a Councillor or contact all of them (it doesn’t have to be the councillors that represent our Ward).

Australian Boater Survey
DoT still requires more WA skippers to sign up for the Australian Boater Survey.
Those who participate have the chance to win a GPS 406 EPIRB or a 12 month subscription to Boat Trader donated by Boating Industries WA members.
The survey gives recreational skippers the opportunity to be part of the process in planning for recreational boating facilities in WA. To participate please click here.

Abandoned Dredging of the Southern Entrance
PMRA has agreed to abandon the dredging programme for the southern entrance this year due to opposition from the residents in the immediate vicinity of the disposal zone. An alternative deeper water site was offered but was also rejected. Disposal on the southern side of the groyne is not possible as it's part of the Ramsar-listed waterways reserve and approval would be most unlikely.
It is worth noting at this time the history of the sedimentation in the southern entrance as we understand it. We feel that the sediment has at least two sources which might be supported by its slightly different physical particle size and chemical constituents when compared with the northern entrance, and may have a different original dredging history. However, by 2011 the characteristic pattern of the centre/southern side near the groyne has areas that are nearly -1.5m and the northern side of the channel is apparently scoured to greater than -3.5m which almost, but not totally accounts for the imbalance.
The 2014 survey reinforces this observation but also shows that on an incoming tide some material may be coming around the northern-most groyne (from the proposed "delivery" area) and building up the sediment in the centre and the southern side. Conversely on an out-going tide it appears that water entering the channel from the main river is scouring that deep channel on the northern side and delivering the sediment in a westward direction. Crude relative analysis from the 2014 data shows say the shallowest area to be dredged is about 150-200x30mx0.75 = say 500cum at an average depth of -1.5 -needs to be taken to -2.25m, compared with the scoured area 150mx25mx1.25 say, approx 450cum so another option may be to reconsider part distribution back to the actual source locations.
The process of undertaking maintenance dredging of the Port Mandurah Canals is principally paid for by the SAR funds collected with the City's rates and is administered by the Waterways Manager when a certain "trigger point" is reached. In most cases the depth of the canals is -2.4m AHD and when, as happens in the northern entrance, sedimentation from Fairbridge bank fills the entrance to a level of -1.5m the Port Mandurah Canals Waterways Advisory Group (PMCWAG) requests that a dredging license be applied for from the various state agencies that control dredging. In the past this has been a very drawn-out process, in some cases taking more than two years from initial request to actual dredging. It involves expensive physical and chemical profile testing of the sediment and can only be undertaken under strict timing and state and local bylaw compliance. Many factors outside the control of PMCWAG and the Council affect this delay.
After a bathymetric survey about two years ago we noticed the gradual build-up of sediment in the southern entrance and noted at the next PMCWAG meeting that the trigger point had been reached and asked that options for dredging the entrance be costed by the City. We have never received any complaint about depth here being an issue from the boating residents or the more significant numbers of non residents who use the canal. The cost of pumping the sediment out to the ocean entrance, where the sediment is pumped from the dredging of the northern site is unacceptable to the committee and the chance of receiving any extra funds from the residents that are immediately affected is low.
The chances of getting dredging licences and approvals is getting increasingly harder and huge efforts are already required to convince the agencies and anti-development groups of the need for dredging. The rejection could be putting at risk any future chances of maintenance dredging. PMRA recommended that the dredging not be proceeded with if the residents along the foreshore are not happy, but would like to sound the warning that it may be very hard to get approval in the future unless the funding provisions are increased.
It is also important at this time to commence a much wider discussion about removal of about 1 meter of vertical height of rocks from the groynes to allow spring tide flushing of guano deposits, the same residents who are most likely to object to the dredging are also the most affected by the unpleasant smell from the cormorants. The dynamics of sediment distribution in the channel would be significantly altered by this action.

www.portmandurah.com.au