Regarding the large development at Burrendong that the trust allowed to proceed at Lions Island Lookout, without the approval of Wellington Council or NSW Lands Minister Tony Kelly.

Mr Mick Madden chairman of Lake Burrendong Trust said he allowed the development to proceed because he mistakenly thought it had been signed off by Minister for Lands, Tony Kelly as part of a plan of management for the park.

It is difficult to understand how Mr Madden had missed exhibiting the Plan of Management for 28 days to give people the opportunity to submit their views and then he mistakenly thought the Plan of Management had been signed off by the Minister for Lands, Mr Tony Kelly.

Wellington Council advised that they had been alerted to the development by concerned site holders, and by members of the public, and people in local government and other industries within the region. The Council advised that the views expressed ranged from hostility towards the development, allegations of favouritism or bias in the allocation of sites, to simple questioning if the development was lawful.

There are many questions regarding this development, one in particular is, "When did the Trust call for public tender for the Lion Island look-out development?"

The present Board of Trustees, has a four year history of debacles, all documented throughout the Orange, Dubbo and Wellington media. It began in 2005 with a dispute between the Wellington Council and Burrendong board of Trustees regarding Trust's authorisation of site holders building houses in the Park, against the caravan Park legislation.

By August 2007 the Trust was again involved in another public debate, this time with the Burrendong Rescue squad, due to the Trust not renewing the VRA lease for their headquarters. The Department of Lands and the Wellington Council became involved and the Trust agreed to build a new VRA headquarters. The Trust later reneged on this agreement and the VRA did not receive a new building. The VRA finally agreed to an arrangement that is far from ideal aor their only alternative was to disband.

Within a month of the VRA issue the Trust was at it again. In September 2007, the site holders were drawn into a conflict, when around three hundred and fifty site holders received a letter from the Trust, advising that due to the Wellington Council not renewing the licence for the Burrendong caravan Park, the park was un licenced it would be closing down

The site holders called upon the Mayor of Wellington , Anne Jones, who at a public meeting of site holders and board of Trustees, proved it was not the case and that Wellington Council had indeed issued Burrendong Caravan Park with their annual licence. From this public debacle, Minister Tony Kelly appointed a facilitator for twelve months to investigate issues surrounding the Trust and Wellington Council.

Issues continued throughout Burrendong State Park, and by January 2008 Burrendong Board of trustees had hit the headlines again. This time between themselves and the operator of the Kiosk ,Mrs Val Newell, due to Mrs Newell's opening hours which was a ten hour a day and not twelve. The Trust accused Mrs Newell of going against her agreement. Trust had neglected to issue a lease or an agreement for the Kiosk, even though this is a requirement of the Lands Depart.

Mrs Newell received a letter to vacate, with a threat that the Police would be called in if she failed to comply. This issue made headlines in the Daily Liberal.

Upon legal advice Mrs Newell stayed put, but due to interference to her Kiosk business, it became impossible for her to carry on.

After Mrs Newell's departure the Trust advertised for a Kiosk operator, offering a n annual wage of $40,000, where as in the past the Kiosk was always leased out. The Kiosk advertised hours are now two and a half days a week and eight to eight on school holidays. Far less than the previous Kiosk opening hours of ten hours a day, for six days a week.

A group of site holders have been writing to the Lands Department and Minister Tony Kelly for the past four years. Mr Kelly is very aware of all the issues surrounding the Trust over their term of office. In May 2008 Mr Kelly reappointed the facilitator in a paid position as ex officio Trustee. Mr Kelly announced that his appointment should bring about a better relationship between site holders and the Trust. This Trustee's paid term is now up and even though site holders wrote during his twelve months term, he did not reply to any of the letters and made no contact at all with site holders.

On 1st April a $310 increase of annual fees was administrated to site holders by the Trust. After reading through the site holder's agreement it was then discovered that the power to each site at Burrendong caravan Park, which is paid for with an extra $500 annual fee, had been removed from the agreement without notice by the Trust. After questioning office staff, site holders discovered that they will soon be paying extra for power, with the $500 now appearing to be included as site fees.

A group of people from Burrendong have worked towards bringing out the truth behind Lake Burrendong State Park. It appeared to us, if we turn a blind eye, we may not have to worry about our State parks,as they may not be there for future generations to enjoy.

We recently went out to gather support from other site holders, but we soon realised that too many people would have preferred to have kept their head in the sand and not have learnt what is legal or illegal in our Park.