Sometimes I know a post I write might garner some reaction….
On Monday I visited Wedge Island with a few friends. We had a great time. A beautiful beach you can drive onto, wonderful surf for kids, hot day, blue sky….paradise really.
A cold beer sitting on the beach with friends after swimming. Thats living.
As we drove up the new road the government has built I remembered the first time I visited Wedge. I was with my mate who had a shack in Lancelin and we made the drive up there in his dad’s Jackeroo. A pretty hairy trip if I remember, but at the age of 17…we were bulletproof.
Now with the new road, I think Wedge Islands status as untouched wilderness days are limited. Except it is not untouched. There are a stack of sheds up there in the bush. The people up there have many stickers proclaiming, ‘Save Wedge’. To be frank, it seems to be a rather self serving argument. A few decades ago these people set up their sheds, with no cost, apart from the material. Now they will argue that they take their rubbish out, and don’t wreck the environment. Perhaps. But there is a definite sense of entitlement that pervades their mentality, particularly it seems as now Wedge is in reach of most people, particularly those with a 4wd.
All I can say is, I wish I had a shack on free land in paradise. Sounds like something you would want to save. But hardly a fair argument when they never purchased the land like the rest of us have to.
I love Wedge and I reckon ‘good on em’ for being prepared to do the hard yakka of building up there.
I hear your point though and I wonder if there is an alternative to knock em down. It’s a real piece of WA history and I’d be sad to see it go, but if there was a way to turn it into a campground/resort (in the most generous sense of the word!) then maybe the gov could own and oversee and people could still have a share in their shack.
Of course insurance, beuaracracy and other impossibilities will preclude this from becoming a reality, but I’d hate to see some very iconic shacks get ripped down just because we have now ‘caught up’. Prince Leonard is a rare west oz icon so maybe Wedge can be similar (and no I don’t own one…)
My guess is we will see a developer move in and make a gazillion $$ and then charge everyone a fortune for going there!
Until then there will be many Wedge runs for this family!
The last thing I would want is a big developer to come and knock it down. Nor would I want 4wd banned. I love being able to drive on the beach, put up the shelter and surf with the kids. Bureaucracy is not the solution. But neither is ‘Wedge snobs’ who think they own the place. They don’t. I don’t think you can camp up there…that would be a great start, allowing families to have a self sustaining holiday. There will always be people who leave rubbish behind, and do the wrong thing. But you would not want bureaucracy to stamp it out because of a few idiots.