War on Wrecks
by Boating Industry Association 18 Oct 2018 16:55 UTC
War on Wrecks © Boating Industry Association
In August, the Queensland Government announced a new initiative to tackle abandoned vessels in the state; War on Wrecks.
This is a high-level ministerial task force investigating the scale of the problem of vessels that have sunk in various ports, harbours, rivers and estuaries, or have simply been abandoned by their owner (to date, over 300 vessels have been classified as abandoned and removal or other action has been agreed for around 20% of this 'fleet' so far).
The group is also charged with defining processes for the future management of abandoned vessels, with proposals likely to focus on identifying responsible parties and how to interact with them to pay for removal.
BIA is represented on the group by Queensland State Council Chairman, Andrew Fielding, with a focus to ensure that the process doesn't negatively impact BIA members or the wider industry and that resolving the problem encourages more people to want to go boating in the future.
Read more here