Brian Sullivan says the boat ramp at Thompsons Beach has been in need of an extension for at least five years.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
A boat ramp at one of Cobram’s most popular destinations needs urgent repair, advocates say, after reports of damaged motors and at least one written-off vehicle.
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Local Brian Sullivan has been taking his family skiing on the Murray River for the past 26 years.
Like many other users, he worries what might happen if he reverses his car too far down the boat ramp.
“The problem is when the water gets low, your trailer drops off the end,” he said.
“It’s a drop-off of over half a metre, and the trailer, when they go over it, they drop right on to their chassis.
“Sometimes when they go to pull the trailer out, they can do damage to their chassis or bend the axle.”
In his time, Mr Sullivan has heard and witnessed first-hand horror stories about damage done to users’ boats and cars.
“One was a car: a Commodore backed in, and they got the boat off, and they couldn’t get the car out,” he said.
“Eventually, the car slipped in a bit further, and the motor eventually died.
The boat ramp at Thompsons Beach is popular with both local users and visitors.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
“It was a write-off because water got into the motor.”
Recently, Mr Sullivan and his son decided to do something about the problem, using rocks to fill in the hole at the base of the ramp.
“We’d try get them in, bring them forward and place them right where the drop-off was, to try fill that half-metre gap,” he said.
But after getting one side of the ramp done, Mr Sullivan and his son could work no further because they found themselves short of rocks for the job, and the rocks they’d already used were too big to shift.
“It would just need a small truckload of rocks, cricket-ball sized, and just put them in probably one to two metres out from the ramp to make it the same angle as the boat ramp,” Mr Sullivan said.
“That would probably fix it for many years to come.”
In a statement, Moira Shire Council chief executive officer Matthew Morgan said the council has secured funding to develop a master plan for the Thompsons Beach precinct, including the facilities and amenity at the reserve.
“If concerns are raised directly with us about the boat ramp, we can look into this, discuss with the relevant stakeholders and authorities and it can potentially be included as part of the master planning process,” Mr Morgan said.
“The master planning is set to be completed by early 2027.”
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