For 4WD enthusiasts it's the sandy pathway to 13 kilometres of beach paradise 24 hours a day — and they don't want to lose any of it.
Diehard users of the Bangalee vehicle access to Farnborough Beach such as Clint Miles are digging in to fight their local council against any reduction in use of the popular stretch of Central Queensland coastline.
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The Keep Farnborough Beach Open campaign, which has almost 800 Facebook followers, took off when Livingstone Shire Council introduced a three-month trial at the start of November to close it to motorised vehicle use between 8pm and 4am.
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The trial aims to address issues including excessive noise, hooning, dune and environmental damage and concerns about potential danger to other beach users.
This [potential night-time closure] takes away from the lifestyle of our own residents, takes away the lifestyle of what tourists expect, Mr Miles said as high tide lapped tyre furrows in the sand.
But it's also about how many more things are we going to continue to lose access to around the Livingstone area, when does it stop?
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Vehicle access south on Farnborough Beach has been closed for over a decade and 4WD enthusiasts fear the council will eventually shut an additional 6km of beach north between Bangalee and the Iwasaki Resort, where a new northern vehicle access is being considered.
All of a sudden, you've got a community that have grown up using the beach and we're all going to be jammed into a smaller stretch of beach, Mr Miles said.
While supporters of the trial argue the 8pm to 4am closure won't affect many, Mr Miles claims those times are crucial to people launching boats off the beach.
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But the numbers now compared to 30 years ago are very, very different and we've got to be prepared to be proactive and find a solution.
What we saw was an explosion of usage by 4WD users, whether they be surfers or fishermen, or just recreational people going to the beach for a wonderful experience, he said.
A Bangalee Beach Action Reference Group made up of residents and stakeholders including National Parks and Wildlife Service and police has been working with the council and has endorsed the night-time trial.
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Reference group member Helen Schweikert, who has lived at Bangalee for almost 10 years, sad vehicle noise wasn't the main issue for her.
You only have to have to walk to the dune on a Sunday afternoon to see the stupidity and craziness that goes on, she said.
Ms Schweikert said it was important to work with the Iwasaki Group, which owned the land and resort north of the ramp and also the main road to Bangalee.
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To me, shifting the access long term to the north of what Iwasaki's proposed development is, is a win win for everybody, she said.
Cr Belot agreed, saying a northern access would act like a ring road to take traffic off that urbanised section of beach.
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Council is determined to try and preserve vehicle access onto the appropriate part of Farnborough Beach to allow for kilometres and kilometres of access and recreational activity to occur both now and into the future, he said.
Cr Belot said the council was also investigating the possibility of allowing 4WD access to Ritamada Bathing Reserve, Timbers Beach at Zilzie, and Long Beach at Joskeleigh as potentially suitable locations with little pedestrian traffic and well away from residential areas.