Parks Victoria rejects penguin tour proposal

Posted Thu Jul 15, 2010 2:02pm AEST

Parks Victoria has rejected a proposal for guided tours of a little penguin colony at the London Bridge beach on the Great Ocean Road.

A private operator wanted visitors to be able to get up close to the little penguins, but Parks Victoria says its decision to reject the proposal was made in the best interests of wildlife.
The ranger in charge of the Port Campbell National Park, Will Cox, says bird life there needs to be protected.
"There's the little penguin colony which is relatively small and very active, and there's also the hooded plover," he said.
"Both these species are listed under the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act, particularly the Hooded Plover, which is listed as vulnerable."
Public access to the beach was banned in 1979 because vandalism led to a decline in penguin numbers.
"Parks Victoria has undertaken a due diligence process where we've gone through two feasibility assessments, an environmental risk assessment and a visitor risk assessment," Mr Cox said.
"The outcomes of these assessments have found that the majority of threats to the values couldn't be appropriately mitigated."

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