Sunday, April 29, 2012

Goolawah Regional Park

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From top to bottom: Brahminy Kite, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Square-tailed Kite.

In 2010 Goolawah State Park was re-designated Goolawah National Park and Goolawah Regional Park, and the campground I’ve been visiting for some years with my dogs became part of the national park. The Regional Park is a 60 acre strip between the road and the beach, with the national park to the north and Limeburners Creek National Park forming its southern edge.

Given that Australia has one of the highest levels of pet ownership in the world with two thirds of families having a pet we have some of the most restrictive laws controlling them. I’ve always been entertained by the fact that I can have my dog with me in the five-star Trump International Hotel on the strip in Las Vegas, but not in most local caravan parks. At the tail end of the Easter holidays there were around a dozen families with their dogs at Goolawah. In addition to the general rules governing dog ownership in NSW under the Companion Animals Act, at the Park dogs must be desexed and confined at night. There was one dog that wandered about, a half-grown pup whose owners spent a lot of time in the surf, but it didn’t cause any problems and the other fifteen or so dogs ran and swam with their owners on the beach and collapsed tired and happy beside the campfires of an evening. One family have been staying here for four weeks every May for forty years, always with their dog, including their current pet Joe – a wonderful big guy never far from his owner’s knee.

Birds were plentiful, including doves, ducks and quail at ground level, along with snakes and lizards.

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