Park

Dredging and construction in these internationally significant wetlands will destroy migratory shorebird feeding grounds


The proposed marina and residential development at Toondah Harbour has all the hallmarks of a major planning disaster. What started as a plan to improve access to North Stradbroke Island has morphed into a sleazy Joh era coastal land grab.
Parking and traffic issues have not been properly considered at any stage of the project’s gestation. Facilities for ferries appear to have been given little thought with one operator describing Walker Corporation’s planning as “amateurish”.
The project would be a major environmental disaster with dredging of 1.85 million cubic metres within and next to a Ramsar wetlands site destroying 32 hectares of sea grass. This is about 68% more dredging spoil than the amount recently approved for expansion of the Abbot Point Coal Terminal near the Great Barrier Reef.
Toondah Harbour’s significant feeding grounds for migratory shorebirds will be obliterated if this development goes ahead.
Big Red Cat departing Toondah Harbour

Stradbroke ferry departing Toondah Harbour


The financial and commercial arrangements for this project remain a closed book to the community.
Why is Labor facilitating a development even worse than the one planned by the LNP?
If you want to help avert this major planning disaster, join Redlands2030 in writing to  Deputy Premier Jackie Trad and asking her to look again at the Toondah Harbour project, this time with eyes wide open!
Ask Jackie Trad to end the rort, just fix the port by copying the letter below into an email and send it to her at deputy.premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au.


 

Deputy Premier

deputy.premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Dear Ms Trad

End the rort,  just fix the port

The massive residential over-development at Toondah Harbour offends basic planning principles.
Put simply, Toondah Harbour is the wrong place for a major dredging and residential development project.
What started as a plan to improve access to North Stradbroke Island has morphed into a sleazy Joh era coastal land grab.
Parking and traffic issues have not been properly considered at any stage of the project’s gestation. Facilities for ferries appear to have been given little thought with one operator describing Walker Corporation’s planning as “amateurish”.
The project would be a major environmental disaster with dredging of 1.85 million cubic metres within and next to a Ramsar wetlands site destroying 32 hectares of sea grass. This is about 68% more dredging than will take place at Abbott Point. Significant feeding grounds for migratory shorebirds will be obliterated if development goes ahead.
The financial and commercial arrangements for this project remain a closed book to the community.
Why is Labor facilitating a development even worse than the one planned by the LNP?
The feasibility of the project is dependent on the transfer of public assets (land) to the developer including alienation of a section of the Ramsar-protected Moreton Bay Marine Park. Without that public gift, the development wouldn’t stack up.
The  Walker Corporation plan released in November includes 3600 residential apartments. The enlarged footprint extends well into the Marine Park. It’s a huge increase on the plan presented to the community in 2014. Development requires a massive dredging operation threatening the integrity of a large swathe of the Bay itself. The plan requires another breach of the SEQ Regional Plan to extend the urban footprint seawards.
No one could claim that the public has seen anything resembling this new plan under any guise of public consultation.
This land grab clearly forces too much activity into the bottleneck location that operates as a busy port for vehicle barges and water taxis servicing North Stradbroke Island. It beggars reason that a mega development could be considered compatible with or essential to upgrading the port.
When in Opposition, Labor expressed concerns about the planning process used for this project.
Your former colleague Tim Mulherin MP, when Deputy Leader of the Opposition, said the (Newman government) PDA legislation is ‘all about undermining the rights of community groups to have reasonable conditions imposed on large-scale developments’.
‘Priority Development Areas’, said Mr Mulherin, ‘broaden the circumstances in which community appeal rights under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 can be overridden. The Labor Opposition strongly opposed and voted against these changes. The Newman Government consulted exclusively with the property industry prior to this legislation being introduced.’
Then he stated: ‘The Opposition is opposed to the removal of genuine community input through the arbitrary declaration of Priority Development Areas’.
So Deputy Premier, why has your Government done a back flip and allowed this project to continue undermining the community’s rights?
Deputy Premier, when you announced Walker Group as preferred developer, were you aware that the proposed project was significantly larger than the plan which was the subject of a dubious community consultation process when the LNP was in power?
Did you know, but not tell the community? If you didn’t, you were conned. But if you did know the extent of the project, then you’ve conned our community!
Either way, the ‘community consultation’ of 2013-14 is a fraudulent basis for proceeding with the Walker Corporation ‘Master Plan’.
To avert this major planning disaster you should reset the project to revitalise the Toondah Harbour ferry terminal. Begin again from scratch with a proper community consultation process and find out what work is really needed. Impose some sensible planning guidelines like the avoidance of environmental destruction.
In other words end the rort, just fix the port.
 
Yours sincerely
Redlands2030
On behalf of members of the Redlands community


 
Send this letter to the Deputy Premier, make a noise in the interests of our community!
Send an email to the Deputy Premier, as follows:

  1. copy the letter (between the two horizontal lines)
  2. open a “new email” page in your own email server
  3. paste the text of the letter into your own email
  4. add the email address to your “To:” i.e. the email address block i.e. deputy.premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au
  5. delete the Redlands2030 signature block
  6. add your own name and details as the signature block, you will need to give your name and postal address to ensure you get a response. 

Redlands2030 – 11 January 2016

starah99, Jan 27, 2016

I’d like to mention that the idea is from an email I received from change.org re:

Next week, politicians return to Canberra to decide the agenda for the year. An election is just around the corner – and politicians are listening to the public closely right now.
Have your say: Tell Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull & Opposition Leader Bill Shorten what should be parliament’s first priority this year. Start a petition.”
With the link to start a petition in the previous comment I made.

Phil S, Jan 11, 2016

That is it…the Toondah PDA is a rort….ignoring the original plan and the community input. There is no reconciliation with the community submissions or the known community values. All this to make a sad financial and environmetal legacy for the next 20 years.
How did fixing the port become a new town? It is just an excuse to exploit the residents, the community, the Bay and the environment.
I agree with the simple message…Jackie Trad….please stop the rort…fix the port.

Erica Siegel, Jan 11, 2016

yes let’s get back to the original plan to upgrade, develop, improve the Toondah Harbour. There is not a great deal shown about the main point of the project, Toondah harbour! It’s all about digging a 13 mt deep hole and piling it up in front of GJ Walter Park to put 10 storey buildings on

Beverley & Gordon Hall, Jan 11, 2016

Well,that’s done.

Please note: Offensive or off-topic comments will be deleted. If offended by any published comment please email thereporter@redlands2030.net

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