Letters to Redlands2030

Letters to Redlands2030 about koalas, Toondah Harbour and Capalaba hi-rise apartments

This week’s community comments deal with the sad state of koala politics, missed economic opportunities for the new Toondah Harbour development to connect to the Cleveland CBD and the predicted traffic chaos on narrow Capalaba streets when six 6-storey towers are built.

Koala politics – why people have no confidence in pollies

One has to wonder why the State Government and local Council make laws protecting koalas and then totally ignore them when a developer requests it.

These days, people have absolutely no confidence of the word and promises of those in power and they also totally disregard all of the community plans that are supposed to be the structure for the coming years. Local people’s wishes are ignored and it is only the developers who get what they want.

If the Council is going to proceed with their current strategy of starving the koalas and making them homeless, surely it would be kinder to just shoot the lot so they don’t suffer as they are now. They are such defenceless and harmless and charming animals that it is our duty to look after them. When foreign dignitaries visit we show them our koalas and then proceed to decimate their populations.

My outrage at this cruelty is boundless. If it were a domestic pet being starved and made homeless, it would have the authorities up in arms and the perpetrators charged and punished. How has politics changed so that we have absolutely no say in our own community? It is time for political reform so we can again have our opinions valued. We will be lucky to still have koalas in the Redlands by the next election and it will be too late.

G Heaven, Cleveland

Toondah Harbour exercise a missed opportunity for CBD

No politicians or the vocal minority of residents understand the dynamics of pristine land located in a dynamic urban environment.

Failing to comprehend inevitable growth results in planning failure and misplaced planning decisions inevitably resulting in a community losing spirit and culture.

Redlands City Council has a history of failing to understand inevitable progression which is why the best harbour in SEQ has an architecturally uninspired restaurant zone which is not connected to the main drag of Cleveland resulting in missed economic and future opportunities for the town.

The Toondah Harbour exercise is yet another missed opportunity which is why Cleveland continues its failure. Failure to connect its key zones and most importantly, a total failure to connect with North Stradbroke Island
and its tourism potential after mining ends.

As a Redlands resident of 18 years I continually get frustrated with the lack of plain common sense.

David Aubrey, Cleveland

Hi-rise apartment blocks means Capalaba local traffic chaos

En route to the city I saw a large crane beginning to build the first of the six 6-storey apartment buildings at Redland Bay/Mt Cotton Rds at Capalaba.

I believe there will be about 300 cars from these units, which will have to use the narrow Aramac Court, parallel to Mt Cotton Rd and the equally unsuitable Holland Cres for access/exit.

This development and resulting extra traffic congestion will most likely mean instant devaluation of homes in the area with many local residents having lived there for decades. In fact, I have been told of a family who are trying to sell their home there now, but can’t…they wouldn’t get enough money to move anywhere else.

People’s lives are being destroyed and no-one seems to care. At the time of the development’s approval, some of the locals never got over the shock of seeing the bold lettering of a headline in Bayside Bulletin “6-STOREY APARTMENT BUILDINGS APPROVED FOR CAPALABA.

At that time, community meetings were organised with the help of Paul Gleeson, who was later elected Councillor – and who said he was opposed to high-rises in Capalaba.

I know one person who lived at the end of Aramac Court. She didn’t get to enjoy the quiet retirement that most will agree she was entitled to. Stress severely affected her health.

Like I always say, the greed of the few destroys the lives of the many.

Amy Glade, Capalaba

Toondah Harbour – Not What the Community Wanted

We applaud Brian Whitelaw’s letter in Redlands 2030 last week. We, too, are saddened that what the community wanted, just like “what the boy wanted”, has been ignored.

Has the Redland City Council forgotten the reasons many Redlanders came and still come to live in the Redlands – the beautiful trees, idyllic surrounds out of the “rat race” of the city yet close enough to necessary facilities, the red soil so good for agriculture, the peaceful atmosphere so important for mental health and the pristine but fragile Moreton Bay.
Why can’t we have a reasonable upgrade of Toondah Harbour without turning the semi-rural area into a modern metropolis which clearly it is not.

We are supportive of an upgrade of Toondah Harbour just not supportive of grandiose overdevelopment.

J & B Douglass, Cleveland

2 Comments

Stewart Turnbull, Aug 24, 2015

Totally Agree with Toondah harbour overdevelopment. They are making it far too large and then not developing the Cleveland centre where we should be having the development to grow the Cleveland area. we do not need another area for entertainment, which is no where near Cleveland central.

jan, Aug 23, 2015

Willard Farm, “The Pines” – It has been an interesting and informative exercise looking for information to prepare my submission for the environment department regarding this property facing the possibility of destruction to build 12 housing lots. The first slab huts built on the property by timber getter brothers was in 1865 who later on developed a successful dairy as well. As the letters of patent for declaring Queensland separation from New South Wales was signed in 1859 to create a separate colony and the elections for the new parliament to sit were in 1860, you can see that this property and group of buildings are an extremely early part of Queenslands history – not just Redlands history. Queensland flag was adopted in 1876. In 1995 Redland Shire Council Heritage Study Inventory with state and local authority accepted Willard Farm on the listing. It was a Redland Shire Council publication, authored by Mary Howells, available for public scrutiny. As the property was mostly resumed for communications reasons during WW2, aircraft carrying mail for Douglas MacArthur landed frequently and it is said those living in the farmhouse were the first to hear of the Japanese surrender. Agriculture has been carried out on this property except for the hiatus during the war, so one could assume it was the longest functioning farm in qld. One of the Willard children was amongst the first attendees at the Wellington Point State School. For many reasons, the fabric of family throughout the Redlands, the continual use of the property for its original use and a link with our wartime heritage are just things that are too precious for Redlands to lose to have more houses built over the top.

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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