Course aims for safer crossing of dangerous Tweed River ocean bar

Thursday 19 October 2006

TAFE NSW – North Coast Institute’s Kingscliff Campus is offering a new short course in early November that aims to give boat operators more knowledge and skill in bar-crossing which will enable them to navigate the dangerous Tweed River bar more safely.

Ocean bars for the Tweed, Currumbin, Brunswick and Ballina rivers cause boat operators many anxious moments. In the past ten years there have been 13 fatalities and 164 recorded incidents on ocean bars in NSW.

The course will be coordinated by David (Pip) Stevenson, long time local mariner and Maritime Teacher at Kingscliff and Ballina Campuses. He has had 25 years experience on the Tweed, Brunswick and Richmond bars as a yachtsman, fisherman and tourist boat operator, and is committed to boating safety through education. “The more knowledge we can share the safer and more enjoyable we can make our time on the water,” says Mr Stevenson.

Mr Stevenson describes ocean bars as an area of shallow water where a river enters the sea. “The steeply shelving bottom causes waves to suddenly and unexpectedly break – these are potentially dangerous conditions for small boat operators negotiating them,” says Mr Stevenson.

The one day course, planned for 10 November, starts in the Maritime Study Centre at the Kingscliff Campus. All aspects of the formation and nature of the bar are examined, slide shows and videos are analysed and students are given tuition in the planning and execution of crossing the bar.

Mr Stevenson says that the students will get to apply their new found knowledge on board Tweed Fishing Charter’s “Cheryl Lee”. The three hour practical gives them the chance to drive the boat under the expert eye of owner Charlie Reynolds, who for over three years was the operations manager of the Tweed Volunteer Rescue Association.

The course is used by NSW government departments such as Maritime, Fisheries and the Department of the Environment as well as members of rescue groups and the general public.

Further information about the course is available on 02 66 771523. Registration and payment for the course can be made by calling 131 601.