Recent artist’s impressions of Toondah Harbour development by Jan Cox, exhibited at the Coochie Art Group show
Potential development at Toondah Harbour, where ferries depart for North Stradbroke Island, has been the subject of many artist’s impressions over the past five years.
When the State Government declared a priority development area in June 2013 there was popular support for an upgrade to a busy ferry terminal. But alarm bells started clanging in early 2014 when the community got its first glimpse of proposed development plans.
Artist’s impression by Walker Group used in a June 2018 Redland City Bulletin story
When Walker Group was appointed preferred developer in September 2014, the project morphed into an environmentally destructive massive residential development. This only became apparent to the community in late 2015 when Walker Group referred its plans to the federal government for environmental assessment.
Images cleverly disguising the project’s scale and impacts, in the worst tradition of real estate marketing, have been published over the years by Redland City Council, the State Government and Walker Group. Media outlets often use these pro-development artist’s impressions when publishing stories about Toondah Harbour.
Community members have fought back over the years with images depicting the scale and visual impact of a multi-tower 3,600 apartment suburb in the bay. Recently, more realistic impressions of Walker Group’s planned mega project have been provided to Redlands2030 by architects who have interpreted publicly available data.
Council’s 2014 plans and artist’s impressions
Public consultation in early 2014 about the Toondah Harbour Draft Development Scheme was informed by artist’s impressions and plans publicised by Redland City Council and the State Government.
These images (and the 2014 public consultation process) assumed that about 800 apartments would be built – very different to Walker Group’s proposed 3,600 apartment project.
Artist’s impressions and development plans published in 2014 by Redland City Council and the State Government are shown in the following gallery (click to view)
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- Toondah Harbour Artist’s impression 2014
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- Looking west: Artist’s impression 2014
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- Looking north east: Artist’s impression 2014
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- Toondah Harbour artist’s impression 2014
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- Plan in the draft development scheme January 2014
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- Plan in the approved development scheme May 2014
Walker Group’s artist’s impressions and development plans
Since being unveiled as the preferred developer in September 2014 Walker Group has produced a number of artists impressions and plans of its proposed 3,600 apartment project.
Walker Group’s artist’s impressions, shown below, focus on marketing the public realm with a few multi-storey residential buildings in the background.
There is an unreal emptiness in a precinct proposed for several thousand residents plus hundreds of ferry passengers, tourists and people visiting the public parks. Where are all the cars?
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- Walker Group 2015
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- Walker Group 2015
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- Walker Group 2015
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- Walker Group 2015
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- Walker Group 2017
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- Walker Group 2017
Walker Group’s Toondah development plans published in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
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- Walker Group plan 2015
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- Walker Group plan 2017
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- Walker Group plan 2018
What will Toondah really look like?
Proposed development at Toondah was likened to bristles of a hairbrush on talkback radio: Photo credit
On ABC talkback radio recently one caller suggested that the Toondah development would resemble the bristles of a hairbrush. In her words:
We are talking 3,600 apartments …limited to 10 storeys …something like …even at 100 apartments per building … 36 towers rising from the sea. That’s at 10 apartments per floor. It will be like a hairbrush, a bristling hairbrush of apartments arising out of the water, out of this Ramsar listed area.
A view from G.J. Walter Park
View from G.J. Walter Park with Moreton Bay and North Stradbroke Island no longer visible.
A few months ago the Toondah Action Group (TAG) attempted to put some scale to Walker Group’s proposed Toondah residential development.
A simple sketch compared the height of ten storey residential towers with the well known Norfolk Island Pines at G.J. Walter Park.
Such drawings are arguable more representative of the proposed scale of Toondah development than images used by the Council, State Government and the local newspaper.
Redlands2030 3D flyover
3D flyover simulation of Walker Group’s 2015 Toondah Harbour master plan
When Walker Group published its first attempt at a land use plan Redlands2030 use this spatial information to produce a 3D flyover simulation of the proposed development.
This simulation, based on available data, alarmed residents because it showed a scale of development completely different to artist’s impressions published by the Council and Walker Group.
New artist’s impressions provided to Redlands2030
Using the latest plans and narratives about Toondah, Redlands2030 acquired the expertise of architects willing and able to interpret available data of the Toondah residential development.
These new impressions convey with some realism the likely visual impact of multi-storey buildings in the area next to the Toondah Harbour ferry terminals and G.J. Walter Park.
Artist’s impressions of Toondah Harbour at Middle Street
GJ Walter Park…as is and as might be if the Toondah Harbour residential development proceeds
Toondah now and in the future…if 3,600 apartments are constructed in Moreton Bay
What do you think?
Artist’s impression of proposed development at Toondah Harbour by Chrissy Ford
We would like to know your impressions of Walker Group’s plans for 3,600 apartment project in the Toondah Harbour Priority Development Area.
Your flight of fancy might be more realistic than other images which have been presented to the community over the past five years.
Send your sketch, drawing or perhaps a cartoon to:
thereporter@redlands2030.net
Redlands2030 – 24 September 2018
Please note: Offensive or off-topic comments will be deleted. If offended by any published comment please email thereporter@redlands2030.net
6 Comments
Not a problem with appartments but there needs to be appropriate parking facilities for tennants and travellers to North Stradbroke island. The midgies and mud will always be there which is not pretty, never will be but this sort of infrastructure would save the Island with a lot more day trips to their beaches of sand n blue water.
Re Toondah Harbour. In 2015, Walker Group referred its plans to Federal Government for environmental assessment. In 2014, public consultation assumed approximately 800 apartments would be built but as stated here, suddenly preferred developer Walker Corporation’s project was for a total of 3,600 apartments. In 2018, has an assessment been finalized by Federal government?
Apart from parking issues, what does assessment have to say on road traffic when rail on the Cleveland line is unreliable and referred to by commuters as the ‘misery line’. Federal Member for Bowman, Andrew Laming says he will fix existing traffic snarls beginning Shore St Cleveland. While roads can be widened in some places, near impossible in others where properties and parts of some would need to be resumed creating bottlenecks. We are in gridlock now in Capalaba with morning rush hour traffic banking up around Windemere Rd Alex Hills and bumper to bumper traffic Carindale-Capalaba from 4:30 p.m. evening rush hour. How many deaths and injuries will we see when thousands more motor vehicles, where even semi-trailers thunder along suburban roads that belong on major highways…even one death is one too many as happened in recent times at Capalaba intersection where one of these vehicles, unable to stop in time, jack-knifed killing a young citizen. To even consider building a massive, destructive project such as the one proposed, is horrific considering the impact it would have on the Redlands community. Reminds me of the saying… ‘give an inch, and they take a yard’…from 800 apartments to 3,600? Breathtaking!
The total disregard for showing the community what is intended to be built borders on the inane and criminally misleading. In the “impressions” the marina area has been “prettied up” with sailboats in their pens fully rigged with sails up and others happily sailing up the alleys. Not far from the proposed site is Raby Bay and Manly Boat Harbour. Those marinas bear no resemblance to the developer’s “impressions” and just goes to show how shallow the thinking is. And what will attract potential buyers for the 5-storey buildings stuck behind the 10-storey towers, or those units adjacent to an industrial area: a working harbour with ferry and other marine traffic all hours of the day and night? The whole scheme is ludicrous and should be abandoned.
To upgrade the ferry terminal Toondah Harbour, there needs to be no destruction of the environment but a courageous new plan. The idea of creating an environmentally destructive massive residential development is, definitely, not what is wanted.
It would benefit the Redlands to create an environmentally friendly upgrade that protects the native flora and fauna, enhances the area’s natural beauty and is accessible for all to visit and to use the facilities.
The plan for the upgrade requires a new direction and a profound insight into what the area offers – environmentally, culturally and historically. It needs to blend into the environment unobtrusively and provide the proper services required for the Harbour. Community consultation involving a wide cross-section of the community that value Toondah Harbour’s unique location, environment and heritage is paramount.
To continue to create an environmentally destructive massive residential development would be undesirable and just become another unimaginative upgrade and development that will benefit a few such as developers, insincere non-residents of the area, and self-seeking individuals and companies. In time, it will lose its appeal, become dated, and be a reminder of the disregard for the community’s values and disrespect of the heritage and the natural environment.
As a Cleveland resident of over 25 years, therefore, I envision a unique upgrade of Toondah Harbour that embraces our natural environment, community identity and values. Locals and visitors need to be impressed and embrace it for its unobtrusiveness, uniqueness and identity.
Redland City Council has ignored the facts of this proposed commercial development since 2013 and tried to hide those facts behind a veil of secrecy called “Commercial in Confidence.” It has now become known as the “Toondah 90 blocks of units in the Bay Proposal.” And this is in a sensitive wetland area that is not available for commercial development. Aside from other recent blunders from our Council this one could lead to their undoing. It is time for both State and Federal Governments to analyse the facts underlying the misleading artist’s impressions and the eloquent but false language. This proposal would never have even reached this stage had our elected councillors and government members been doing their jobs in a responsible manner.
Developers love impressions….they can leave out the worst and make the good bits look much bigger than they will be. The Walker Corporation has reason the fudge the impressions but Council and the State Government should not be promoting the development on the back of fudged drawings. The public interest demands better of both levels of Government.
The Council should show us what 3,600 apartments would look like! Will it be 90 buildings of 10 storeys each with 4 units per floor? Or 36 ten storey towers with 10 units per floor?
Most likely the “real” artist’s impressions will fall into the old adage… “you can’t fool all of the people all of the time!”