The City of Wanneroo’s parks maintenance team placed sand on a track that leads from the Yanchep Surf Life Saving Club to a house owned by Gary Tremaine on May 30.
City businesses director Chris Morrison said it was an illegal access track through Crown reserve and Mr Tremaine had legal access to his property from the north via an access easement.
‘The access track was not a dedicated road and was never intended to be a road,’ Mr Morrison said.
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READ NOW‘The City is now trying to rehabilitate the area as it is a Crown reserve and not a dedicated road.’
Mr Tremaine said he received letters from the City in March and April advising him of temporary road and track closures for the Brazier Road realignment between May, 2014, and April, 2015.
‘I believed that during this one-year period I would not need to access my property from the south as there is a rough access track coming to the north side of my property,’ he said.
‘Once they reopened the road, I could then get access from the south to my property.’
However, in late May he received another letter that said the City would close track permanently.
‘My family has had access to our property on this unsealed access track from before 1950,’ Mr Tremaine said.
‘The track was installed around 1927 when Mary Lindsay commissioned the Bunnings brothers to build the Yanchep Hostel. My family has taken great care over the 66 years that we have been living here to rehabilitate what was once denuded coast scrub ” denuded by roaming cattle, scrub fires and strong coastal winds.’
Mr Tremaine said he returned from a doctor’s appointment on May 30 to find the southern access blocked by sand piles and he did not think it was reasonable to close a track that had been used since 1927.
Work on the northern section of the Brazier Road realignment is expected to start this month.
City infrastructure director Dennis Blair said at last month’s council meeting the works would be finished before Christmas.
He said access to Yanchep Lagoon would be restricted for eight weeks, but people could access the kiosk from the southern part of Brazier Road.
‘All of our detour signs will be worded to ensure people know the cafe is still open,’ Mr Blair said.
‘We will be doing our utmost to make sure that there’s no impact on this business during this construction period.’
Mr Morrison said the City met the contractor for the second stage of the project on June 3 and site possession followed. He said the City would inform residents of the works and road closures and the surf life saving club would remain accessible.