General News
14 November, 2025
Not going anywhere
A significant turnout of Lake Fyans Holiday Park annual site holders turned up to Northern Grampians Shire Council’s November meeting on Monday, imploring to Council to step up and help resolve ongoing issues out at the lake.
The group refers to themselves as ‘The Annuals’ and they’ve been making overtures to the Lake Fyans Recreational Area Committee of Management for the past decade, asking them to maintain and upgrade basic amenities and facilities, as well as asking to have some visibility in regard to management and future planning at the lake, as The Annuals are concerned about the ongoing viability of the holiday park due to a legal stoush between the park operators and the committee of management.
The Stawell Times-News has had no luck contacting the committee regarding The Annuals’ plight, and GWM Water, who delegates Lake Fyans matters to the committee, has so far refused to engage with The Annuals, simply telling them they should be directing their energy towards the holiday park leaseholders.
Spokesperson for The Annuals, Phil Gitsham submitted three questions for Monday’s NGSC meeting, all three were centred around the fact Council has a representative seat on the Lake Fyans committee, and Mr Gitsham queried why Council didn’t seem to be able to act as a conduit of information on ratepayers behalf, and questioned if the Council involvement with the committee actually has any influence at all on what happens out at Lake Fyans.
Mr Gitsham’s questions drew a single basic response from NGSC Director Corporate Services, Vaughan Williams, who didn’t have a lot to offer The Annuals.
“While Council has an elected representative on the Lake Fyans committee of management, Council is not responsible for the management of that committee,” said Mr Williams.
“The committee is responsible for the recreational areas around the lake, and that the Lake Fyans committee of management is responsible (sic) to GWM Water but Council is nowhere in that diagram.”
Mr Williams explained that GWM Water is responsible for the water, and have delegated responsibility for managing the land surrounding the lake to the Lake Fyans Recreational Area Committee of Management.
“I was forewarned that they wouldn’t give us a good answer but I still can’t understand how they can have a Councillor on the committee, and never get reports from the committee back to the Council,” Mr Gitsham said post-meeting.
Mr Gitsham said the feedback he’s received when dealing with Council is that when the NGSC committee representative has requested information at meetings, they’ve been kept in the dark.
“It’s been like that the whole time that Council has had a member on that committee, they never get any answers from them,” Mr Gitsham said.
“I was pre-prepared for a disappointment but not to the degree where they say ‘we can’t get nuthin’ today.”
Mr Gitsham said the advice post-meeting from NGSC Mayor Karen Hyslop was to contact GWM Water, however he says that is a road well-trodden and leads him into a fruitless loop.
“I’ve got emails and correspondence with (GWM Managing Director) Mark Williams where he categorically states ‘it’s nothing to do with us’ and to go and see Northern Grampians Shire Council,” he said.
“So I said after the meeting, ‘I’ve seen you now’ and now you’re telling me to go back to him.”
Mr Gitsham said that the latest maintenance woes to affect holiday makers at Lake Fyans struck last weekend when the a lake full of water, managed by a water company, had no water for holiday park users to use.
“It was abysmal, we had no water out there,” said Mr Gitsham.
“On the Friday night, there wasn’t enough water pressure for me to have a shower, so I went and saw (holiday park operator) Darrin and he said there’s people coming out of cabins, cancelling their bookings, asking for their money back and leaving so they can go somewhere where they can have a shower.
Mr Gitsham said he felt sorry for Darrin, who had contacted GWM water about the matter only to be led astray with advice that the filters must be blocked, which to inspect meant disconnecting the mains water to the park.
“He went down, he disconnected the water, got the filters out and they were good as gold,” he said.
“Put them back in and checked the meter down near the connection and we’re getting the required amount of water coming in the pipe but somewhere in the park there must be a pipe broken or something because we’re losing the pressure somewhere.
“The biggest concern now is Christmas is not far away, if they don’t do some work that park will shut because there’s a lot more people at Christmas than what there was over the weekend.”