Caring for our pets and animals

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Kempsey Shire Council loves animals, as do many members of our community.

Over the last 8 months Council has been engaging with local community members, dog walkers and groups, animal groups and other Government agencies including National Parks and Wildlife Service to review and update our Council managed dog exercise areas. This included reviewing the areas where people could walk their dogs on and off leash, and will help inform the location of supporting infrastructure (such as poop bags and bins) as well as making sure our signage is easy to understand for residents and visitors to the area.

During the engagement we ran a series of information sessions and stalls, stakeholder meetings and used our online Your Say Macleay page to capture your feedback.

We had a huge response and worked through the over 500 surveys that were provided for feedback

• 235 responses for SWR Trial Bay
• 168 responses for SWR Back Creek Beach
• 99 responses for Matty's Flat
• 100 responses for Crescent Head Killick Beach
• 100 responses for Hat Head
• 8 responses for Kempsey and
• 5 responses for Stuarts Point/Grassy Head

WHAT WAS THE RESULT?

A report went to 29 June 2021 Council meeting and Council adopted the following Dog Exercise area's

• Grassy Head. Minor realignment to beach entry and shortening of the prohibited (no dog) zone
• Hat Head. No change to existing arrangements. Leashed area from the boat ramp. Unleashed from entry point 6 onwards
• Kempsey Riverside Park and South Kempsey Park. No changes to these areas
• Killick Creek Crescent Head. Option 2 was selected. This means that no dogs are allowed to the left hand side of the bridge up Killick creek. Dogs are allowed to the right of the bridge but must be on a leash until you reach the off leash area (which is shown as green) and they can run leash free
• South West Rocks Back Beach. Dogs must be on a lead from the carpark, until you access Back Beach, where dogs can then run leash free
• South West Rocks Main Beach - Trial Bay. Dogs must be on a leash from the surf club until you reach the off leash zone shaded green
• South West Rocks Matty's Flat. A new dog exercise area has been created. There is a combination of on leash and off leash zones
• Stuarts Point. Dogs must be on a leash until they reach the beach which is all off leash (note that the new Grassy Head Map is above)

The rules and signs will be updated over October and November 2021 and more information can be found here.

We are exploring options for more dog exercise areas in the Shire and have heard that residents are keen on fenced and unfenced exercise areas

Council will also continue to advocate to the National Parks and Wildlife Service for community to be able to transport their dogs in a vehicle to access the beach through National Parks at Richardsons Crossing, Crescent Head Back Beach and Ryan's Cut. You can read more information about National Parks and Wildlife rules on dogs in National Parks

STAY INVOLVED!

Council will be talking more with the community about our pets. To stay involved Register Here and we will be in touch when we are seeking more feedback!

WANT MORE INFORMATION?

For more information on caring for your pets and animals please see here.