In 2000 YFRWPA Inc. entered into a commercial agreement with the current tour operators under which the latter were licensed to conduct 4WD tours and authorise access over the Mt Caernarvon 4WD track for an initial five year period with 2 five year right of renewal options.  The contractual arrangements do not form a “rental” agreement but exclusively license the operators to access the Mt Caernarvon track subject to certain conditions for an annual fee.  The annual fee is fixed for the complete five year period and only subject to re-determination by the Licensor at the end of each five year period. The initial fee was determined based on information provided by the current operators and over the past 10 years YFRWPA Inc. has obtained more reliable information for calculation of the annual fee.

YFRWPA Inc. considers that the license fee charged should equate to the current commercial value of the license at the time of renewal.  To this end in 2011 YFRWPA Inc. engaged a licensed commercial valuer to determine the commercial value of the license as at December 2011 and used this valuation in setting the license fee for the 2nd renewal term of the agreement commencing in March 2012.  As the current operators have advised they will not agree to the renewal terms, the Association intends seeking expressions of interest from other tourist operators for exclusive or non-exclusive operation of the tour after March 2012.

Secretary
YFRWPA Inc.