Expansion will create 'Noosangatta'
stevem
in "Don't you worry about that", Council Amalgamations, Environmental, Local Politics, Population Growth
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2nd July 2009
By Alan Lander
The Sunshine Coast may be one Bligh government decision away from becoming part of a 250-kilometre-long “Noosangatta”, running from Noosa to the southern Gold Coast.
The state government is considering plans to extend the Caloundra South area to accommodate another 50,000 people, on top of the 50,000 already earmarked for the area.
Critics say the Labor government would be approving housing on land even the pro-development Bjelke-Petersen government vowed would never be touched.
The open space standing in the way of “Noosangatta” is the environmentally sensitive Hall’s Creek catchment area south of Bells Creek.
It not only forms part of the area separating Caboolture and Caloundra, but also is next to sensitive Pumicestone Passage and Glasshouse Mountains.
Stockland, which now owns the land, is lobbying the government to approve an investigative area for residential development beyond 2041.
It has previously said it plans to create 45,000 jobs through 900 hectares of industrial and commercial land, as well as a major town centre and nine other small commercial centres, two golf courses and a Southbank-style community precinct.
The 1400-hectare plan was rejected out of hand by the former Caloundra council amid fears it would damage Pumicestone Passage.
Mayor Bob Abbot said he feared the area will be included in the revised South East Queensland Regional Plan’s urban footprint, due to be released later this month.
Mr Abbot and Moreton Bay mayor Allan Sutherland are adamant they will fight any decision to develop.
“It’s the start of the rot for the inter-urban break,” Mr Abbot said.
“We have fought for years to get a section between Caboolture and the Coast set aside for that, to see where Brisbane finishes and the Sunshine Coast starts.
“The Gold Coast has joined up with Brisbane now, and we are determined it’s not going to happen here.”
Mr Abbot said even the Bjelke-Petersen government recognised the value and fragility of Pumicestone Passage.
He said it had made a commitment never to develop the region.
“I think it’s significant for this government which should be saying that waterway should need maximum protection – it’s not a river, it doesn’t get flushed like a river, it’s almost like a lake, and the capacity to flush the Bells Creek area is 24 to 36 hours.
“Halls Creek takes four-to-seven days and the further south the worse it is.”
He said blue-green algae would become a regular feature in the Passage.
Mr Sutherland said he had made it abundantly clear to infrastructure minster Stirling Hinchcliffe he did not support any move to expand the SEQRP footprint.
“Moreton council does not want this area to become the ‘Yatala of the North’ as touted by some in the development industry,” he said.
“Any urban encroachment on the fringes of the Caboolture – Sunshine Coast urban break would undermine its significance and set a precedent which may ultimately see the creation of an undesirable 250-kilometre city stretching from the border to Noosa,” he said.
Coast environment councillor Keryn Jones was also fearful of a decision to develop.
“If that were to go ahead most in the environmental movement know we could kiss the health of the Pumicestone Passage goodbye,” she said.
Stockland said it would not comment on the issue until a decision had been made by the government.
A spokesman for minister Hinchcliffe confirmed Halls Creek was being considered for the long-term, “and only if Caloundra South is unable to account for its share of the region’s growth”.
Caloundra South already has approval to carry upwards of 50,000.
The spokesman said the area’s rural and regional landscape status area had not changed despite being in the draft footprint plan.
“Identified investigation areas are not considered as a potential new urban area for inclusion into the footprint unless it satisfied strict environmental and infrastructure requirements as shown through detailed studies,” the spokesman said.
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Reader Comments (1)
Alan is closer to the truth than he realises.
The open space in the Halls Creek Catchment area will not deter them at all.
The Govt and the local "Boards" in Gladstone, the Gladstone Economic Industrial Development Board (GEIDB) and The Gladstone Ports Corporation (GPC), both controlled by the same person who is also in the process of taking over the Bundaberg Ports Authority and has recently been appointed personally by KRudd as Chairman of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority are currently in the process of ruining the environmentally sensitive Curtis Island by putting up to 9 Liquid Natural Gas terminals on the Island.
This is in spite of there being plenty of suitable sites on the mainland without destroying another Island.
They have taken (By compulsory Acquisition) 6,500 Ha of Curtis Island for this purpose.
They even took a area that was a Grazing lease that was in the course of being converted to freehold and the reason given was that "they did not want anybody using the land for any purpose that they did not agree with" The answer, steal the land so that nobody else can have it. (This is what is happening with Mt Larcom also at present)
They have also taken Kangaroo Island, the southern end of The Narrows (the channel between the mainland and Curtis Island) and the entrance to Graham Creek.
The Narrows, Kangaroo Island and Graham Creek are all listed on the Register of the National Estate. They will have to encroach onto the heritage listed area to create these LNG terminals and loading facilities.
It has been reported that they will have to dredge about 35million cubic mtrs out of the channel to allow the giant gas tankers to come in and load.
This will take huge areas of sea grass and mangroves where the dugong, dolphin and turtles feed and breed but they care not about that because it is the almighty dollar that they are after. Who gives a bugger about the native marine life. It only gets in the way.
This is exactly what they will do in the case of The Halls Creek area.
The comment about "Noosagatta" is very close to the truth.
You have to understand how they now work to fully see what they are doing and what they intend doing in the future.
The Govt are in the process of creating huge "State Development Areas", both Industrial and Residential and I will explain how they work. I can do this because many of them are already in existence now.
I will start with the Industrial Development areas.
The largest Government State Development area (industrial) in the country is the GSDA (Gladstone State Development Area) It covers an area at present of approx 28,500 Ha of land, (and still growing) "stolen" from the owners and covers the entire area between the Bruce Highway at Mt Larcom and the ocean at Gladstone and beyond onto Curtis Island. Several small towns were taken and destroyed (bulldozed). What the GSDA does not control, the Gladstone Ports Corporation (GPC) does. ( same person controls both boards)
There are several more large Industrial State Development Areas (SDA) currently being "Developed" by the Govt in the State.
They are currently taking a SDA corridor from Gladstone to Rockhampton then west to Stanwell, a distance of approx 120 kms.
Off this "corridor" they intend to take thousands more ha's of land to build another 3 coal loading facilities.
One will be at Raglan, one will be at Bajool and another will be on the Fitzroy River 12 kms downstream from the Barrage in Rockhampton to load coal to be taken down the Fitzroy to a huge floating loading facility out in the open ocean off the coast.
They are attempting to get another area near the Shoalwater Bay Army training area to also load coal.
When they take these areas ALL public and Council involvement is no longer allowed. There is no recourse, not even through the Courts.
Councils have can have no involvement, get no rates etc and lose all income from things such as development applications, inspection fees, headworks and the like and so are denied the income that normally comes to a Council with development of any kind.
The forced amalgamation of the Councils was carried out to have the Councils fail and so they could put in their chosen Administrator and bypass all Council involvement.
There are SDA's at Gladstone, Townsville, Bundamba/Swanbank, Stanwell/Gladstone, Bromelton (an Industrial Development of approx 20 kms long), Abbott Point NQ and a proposed one at Ipswich.
They are currently resuming land for a SDA corridor right out to the coal/oil fields in Western Qld.and from there will take all of the farming land that they want to feed the gas and coal down their corridor and take whatever they want on the way.
All input by public or Councils ceases to exist.
This is how they intend to run the huge proposed residential Developments that will ultimately be built connecting the North Coast with the SE right down to the border and will be the future development pattern for the entire State.
There are several of these already in existence including a Res Development in Rockhampton (Govt controlled) that is building houses to house Gladstone workers who will be bussed to Gladstone each day. Many of the workers in Gladstone Industries are already bussed daily from R'ton to Gladstone. There is plenty area for res development but the Govt want to make Gladstone an industrial suburb of Rockhampton. There were recent suggestions about closing Gladstone Airport and travelling to Rockhampton to fly.
In recent times two Residential Developers have submitted plans for developments in and to the west of Mt Larcom, 5 to 20 minutes from the entire GSDA.
The GEIDB requested the Govt to not allow any development here but would not give a reason.
The proposals were outside of any of the GSDA area but they are adamant that they will not let any development procede because the Council would have to over ride the current zoning to allow such development.
At a meeting at Mt Larcom where Mr Leo Zussino advised the people of the town that his "Boards" would not allow any development here, he made the strange statement that the very same land that was proposed for residential development would have value as industrial land for use in conjunction with the GSDA.
A rather hypocritical statement because to use the land for industry would involve an over ride of the town plan to achieve, something that he just said was not on.
There are a number of large Govt controlled Residential State Development Areas in the SE corner and several up in the North. You may have read about Campbell Newman protesting the loss of control over this development. But then he appears to have buckled at the knees and dropped off.
By now you should be starting to get the idea of how the Govt and their Corporate Boards operate and how they will operate in the future.
A case in point was prior to Christmas where an application for a small retirement residential development was proposed in Bundaberg.
The Council for whatever reason refused approval. The Developer exercised his right to appeal the decision through the Appeals Court. when he did so, Paul Lucas SEIZED the development, knocked it on the head and so now the Developer has no further right to appeal as he was legally entitled to do.
This Developer now has no right of recourse at all. A very similar situation to Bob Bone and others. The Dictators made the decision and to hell with the people because they own the State, not the rightful owners, the People.
All development in the future will be controlled by the Govt. Councils and the people will have no say. Development will only be allowed if there is money in it for the "Corporate Bastard Dictators" that are taking over all aspects of our lives.
It is time to start to speak out for our rights. The gutless wonders who complain about everything but do nothing about anything are getting what they deserve and in the process are causing detriment to our future generations.
Peter Neilsen,
22 Gladstone Street,
Mt Larcom, Qld 4695,