Update: 19th December 2007

Below is an update to let you know what is happening regarding the Rip Curl proposal.

I have insisted and Rip Curl has agreed to commission a formal Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study specific to Gnaraloo. Rip Curl has also agreed to my request that this work be done by Gnaraloo’s Environmental Manager, Karen Hattingh, who is an experienced environmental scientist with a legal background and extensive consulting experience on national and international projects for the private and public sectors. Karen has provided advice to Gnaraloo on environmental assessment and operational management since I took the station over in 2005 in order to improve triple bottom line (namely environmental, social and economic) outcomes. She is familiar with Gnaraloo and local conditions here, including living on the station for 3 months during 2005 – 2006 to better understand this environment.

Karen works from an office in Geraldton and will ensure the EIA covers issues of concern to locals and the surf community to ensure they are taken into consideration during assessment and decision-making.

Karen is currently onsite and will start the EIA soon. The EIA is a scoping document that will highlight issues requiring attention and make recommendations on required management to assist with decision-making on the event. There will be opportunity to provide input into the draft EIA during this period of work.

Karen will be in contact with key interest groups to invite participation and comment on the draft work as it unfolds. In the meanwhile, should you wish to provide preliminary comments on environmental or social issues that need to be considered in the EIA, please send this to:

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Please also let her know via the same address if you wish to be included in this process by sending the name of your organization and the contact details of your spokesperson.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and letting us know of your views.

Cheers, Paul Richardson

10th December 2007

Paul Richardson here, the owner of Gnaraloo Station. Whilst I have been approached to host a Rip Curl Search Event at Gnaraloo in 2008, a final decision about this has not yet been made. I only found out on the 30 November 2007 that an announcement about the event would be made in December 2008 and assumed that appropriate community consultation about it had been done. It appears that this is not the case.

I have read all the posted comments on the care2 website so far and share some of the concerns. I have previously raised issues with Rip Curl about the need for real consultation with locals and the surf community and for environmental impact assessment (EIA) prior to decision-making about the event.

I am currently in the process of discussing my concerns with various parties, including NorthWest Boardriders. Gnaraloo is my home and, like you, I want to protect its wilderness values. I employ a fulltime environmental scientist who works with us to manage site operations, the only non-mining owned station in WA to do so. Unless the potential environmental and social impacts associated with the event can be adequately addressed, I will not consent to having the event at Gnaraloo while the area is under my management. I will also seriously consider the popularizing of the Gnaraloo wave before making my decision.

It seems to me that whilst this event may have adverse impacts if poorly managed, we also need to consider the potential benefits to the local community and the environment from the funds generated by it were it well managed. For example, improved environmental protection at Gnaraloo by committing a percentage of profits to this, opportunities and exposure offered to local surf talent by having wild cards for locals, potential contribution to the Gnaraloo Marine Turtle Survival Program (a proposed community monitoring program of endangered and vulnerable marine turtles at Gnaraloo that I have been seeking funding for since 2006). There may also be benefits to local Carnarvon businesses in the Gascoyne Region if they were actively involved in the event process and included throughout it.

The potential onsite impacts of such an event would be managed in various ways, for example:

• Not displacing Gnaraloo patrons that have already booked at 3 Mile during the period (standard accommodation pricing will be charged).

• Housing all event staff and competitors at the Homestead site (infrastructure and facilities here are in the process of being completed regardless of the event).

• Not increasing site accommodation pricing after the event as a result of it.

We also need to consider that Tombstones is part of the Ningaloo Coast and Ningaloo Reef actively being promoted by the West Australian Government to visitors, both Australian and International. A large percentage of the North West Cape is currently supported by nature based tourism operations and, given the Government's pressure on the pastoral industry via its exclusion of coastal land from pastoral leases, this is likely to increase in future. Whilst I have made a conscious decision not to advertise or promote Gnaraloo in any surf related publications, current visitors to it have fuelled its exposure and introduction to the public by articles and photographs of it sold to surf magazines and the sale and distribution of DVDs shot on location. For example, Gnaraloo recently featured in Tracks Magazine as one of Australia's worst kept secret surfing spots. Even websites such as the care2 petition increase its exposure.

I have insisted that real consultation occur and that a formal EIA be undertaken to consider the potential impacts of the event on both the environment and the community, to make recommendations regarding appropriate management thereof and to inform decision-making on it. This work would include consideration of previous international Rip Curl events and experiences in locations such as Mexico and Chile to ensure potential negative impacts are not repeated at Gnaraloo.