A Sydney family has been hit with a whopping $1700 fine for unwittingly letting their two dogs run free on the wrong piece of Wollongong sand.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Earlier this month Nicole Choda, who recently moved to Wollongong for work, invited her mum, dad and brother to come and visit the city’s off-leash beaches.
The 24-year-old said she had looked online to find that Puckeys Beach was listed as dog-friendly, and thought it would be a good place to let her cocker spanials Eddy and Marley run free.
Arriving at North Wollongong, near the Lagoon, the family found a large sign (pictured) proclaiming they were about to enter Puckeys Beach.
“We could see other dogs on the beach, but we walked up to the sign to check and we could see that there was nothing on the sign saying dogs were prohibited – only horses,” Nicole said.
Reassured they had found the right place, the out-of-towners spent some time on the beach, before being approached by a group of five Wollongong City Council rangers.
Nicole said her family protested when the rangers told them they were in the wrong area, pointing to the signs they had observed when entering the beach.
After a confrontation, she said her family were disappointed to walk away with two $220 fines for having their dogs off the lead.
Planning to appeal due to the confusion over signage, they were “even more shocked” to receive seven fines in the mail, totalling $1705.
The offences include two $330 fines for being in a “prohibited place”, two $165 fines for the dogs not having collars and name tags and one fine of $295 for a dog “not registered as required”.
Ms Choda disputes these extra fines, and said her dogs were “wearing a harness with a nametag”.
“One of the rangers was on the beach playing with Eddy, so I don’t understand how they would be ‘out of control’,” she said.
“It was pretty bad, it was just supposed to be a family day for my birthday but it was probably one of the worst family weekends ever.”
Sent a picture of the sign Ms Choda said she saw on entering the beach, Wollongong council’s media department forwarded photos of other signs which are placed in different area of the beach.
“Puckeys Beach Fairy Meadow, from the walkway north of the lagoon, is a ‘green zone’ meaning dogs are allowed off-leash at any time,” a media spokeswoman said. “The area to the south of the walkway is a ‘red zone’ meaning dogs are prohibited at all times.”
Quizzed on why the rangers had issued multiple fines, the spokeswoman said the council “must apply the provisions of the legislation consistently to be fair to everyone in the community”.
“On this occasion, multiple offences had been committed under The Act,” she said.
“People who receive a [fine] and believe they were unjustly fined can elect to have the matter heard in court or request a review.”
She said five rangers had approached Ms Choda’s family, the council said there had been “three foreshore rangers on duty on this date, one being the Senior Animal Control Ranger”.
“Two parking officers were also present to discuss a parking related issue in Stuart Park with the Senior Ranger.”