Marine-based commercial tourism activities which promote aquaculture through product tasting and education of the farming activity have existed for a number of years both within Australia and globally. These have traditionally centred around tourism activities such as vessel or wading tours which do not require physical construction or development of marine infrastructure. However, recently in South Australia two unique marine-based Pacific Oyster aquaculture tourism ventures emerged, consisting of tasting/educational fixed platforms, which required the proponents to separately seek development approval and authority to use the seabed from multiple State government agencies under different legislation. While the tourism developments have been successful, not just economically but also in promoting the aquaculture industry and its social licence, feedback from the proponents indicated that the legislative assessment and approval process was not conducive in supporting these types of developments (i.e. not streamlined; extended timeframes for approval).
The efficiency of the assessment and approval process for aquaculture tourism developments is contrary to the streamlined process under the Aquaculture Act 2001 (the Aquaculture Act) for commercial aquaculture developments which farm aquatic organisms. The Aquaculture Act provides the State government regulatory agency, the Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA), with the capacity to regulate aquaculture development under a single dedicated legislative framework. A fundamental feature of this legislative framework is the ability to establish dedicated aquaculture zones in State waters. These are an attractive option for industry, as they remove the legislative requirement for development approval and provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ single government agency point of entry with PIRSA able to assess and approve their proposals.
To streamline the assessment and approval process for aquaculture tourism developments, in 2021 a Bill was passed through the Parliament of South Australia to amend the Aquaculture Act. The resulting Aquaculture (Tourism Development) Amendment Act 2021 will now empower PIRSA to assess and approve these types of aquaculture tourism developments located within aquaculture zones in a similar efficient manner to commercial aquaculture. This legislative initiative will improve proponent confidence in the application process, encourage investment and growth in this emerging tourism industry, and promote South Australia’s aquaculture industry. The process and content of the regulatory amendments made for aquaculture tourism developments will be described, along with example tourism developments.