Three letters to the editor this week raise concerns about the proposed Redland whitewater centre. Different voices, but a common message: Redlanders want to know what’s being planned, what it will cost, and what environmental values will be lost.
We want to hear from you — whether you support, oppose, or have questions about the proposed whitewater project. Email us at: theeditor@Redlands2030.net
A Whitewater Elephant for a Dead Duck Olympic Sport
Redland City Council’s recent aggressive promotion of its proposed swimming lagoon on the Birkdale Community Precinct is an obvious ploy to divert our attention from the unwanted, industrial scale Olympic Whitewater Centre planned to sit beside it.
The proposed Whitewater Centre threatens the freshwater aquifer that sustains the Core Koala Habitat on these precious conservation lands that Redlanders want to protect.
Whitewater is also the short straw of Olympic venues. They are costly to build, hugely expensive to operate, and of limited community use. Worldwide, former Olympic Whitewater Centres are operating in the red, or have been abandoned altogether.
For these and other reasons, the International Olympic Committee has indicated the sport of Canoe Slalom (Whitewater) will likely be dropped after the 2028 Los Angeles Games, which would leave Redlanders with a Whitewater Elephant, built for a Dead Duck Olympic sport.
On top of this, Council won’t reveal (or doesn’t yet know?) lagoon construction or operating costs, but similar facilities have cost tens of millions to build and are costing millions annually to run.
And the proposed lagoon would be sited at the Brisbane City border, far from a majority of Redlanders.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Aquatic Centre remains in need of urgent upgrade, and our aging water and sewerage infrastructure looms as a massive multi-million dollar repair and replacement priority.
Council wants us all to be excitedly focused on a lagoon we probably can’t afford, in a bad location that doesn’t serve us well, to distract from a destructive Whitewater Elephant we don’t want, to support an Olympic event that may not even exist.
It would be laughable if it weren’t all so tragic.
S.S.
Thornlands
Whitewater project lacks community support
The recent public release of Redland City Council’s plans for the lagoon etc at the Birkdale Precinct by Cr Julie Talty was most notable for its glaring omissions.
The absence of real costs, as if ratepayers of Redlands are not deserving of such vital information is only part of the gaping hole in the proposal.
Also, the subsequent exposure of further massive development plans which were not included in the public release; one must ask what is being hidden and why?
The assessment of the proposed Whitewater debacle under the EPBC Act initially gave the go-ahead and claimed that 60% of the natural landscape would remain unaltered by the Olympic construction. Since this appraisal was delivered, a reconsideration has been supported and public submissions lodged to uphold the re-evaluation of the EPBC decision based on expert scientific information .
How can the Council propose hotels, restaurants, car-parks etc in this precinct and retain koala habitat of any significance, let alone 60% of the precinct? Should this all be subject to assessment under the EPBC Act ?
How can this have community support when over 70% of residents indicated a lack of support for the type of developments on the table?
In 2019 when the Council received the land from the Federal Government, there was to be an agreement between the two entities to protect and conserve biodiversity on the Birkdale land. Has this been conveniently forgotten ?
Also, is the State Government’s new plan for koalas in the south east simply a smoke -screen for complete fragmentation of koala habitat ?
This brings to mind Joni Mitchell’s song” A Big Yellow Taxi”
So they paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel
A boutique
And a swinging night spot.
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parkiing lot
J.M.
Cleveland
Ratepayers deserve to see whitewater costings
The Talty roadshow rolls spending like drunken sailors never mind most of us are in a financial crisis struggling to pay our bills.
If you hadn’t heard the news, the whitewater Birkdale project is a done deal set to start 2027. I thought it was subject to review and reassessment obviously not, decisions have been made behind closed doors and no one (apart from the secret seven) has a clue about how much it’s going to cost.
The figures are being hidden and withheld from us and as ratepayers we deserve answers. These are not chook raffle money projects and someone in Council is signing off the cheques with basically nil transparency and accountability.
As one ratepayer rightly said “its more destruction of wildlife, of habitats, more pollution, more water waste, more traffic congestion!…they are killing everything they can”.
So here we have it, an odious project being shunted through without any accountability totally in breach of Section 4.2 of the Queensland Local Government Act regarding transparency and democratic representation. It is patently clear that despite massive opposition a cabal of Councillors are hell bent on the white-water venue going ahead.
So what can we do about it? We have two options! Do nothing or protest and lobby until the project becomes so objectionable that it has to be culled.
Regards Mr K.B.H.
Wellington Point
More letters to Redlands2030
Survey about beach access, Ramsar opportunities, political polling – in letters
Ratepayers question Redland City Council’s financial management
Campaign to save koala habitat at Ormiston College – letters
Why are we wasting money on this? This will cause more car traffic in the area. The public transport / train infrastructure on this side of town is problematic.
The two recent editions of the Redlands Bayside News featured front page artist’s impression of this, so-called, “magnificent – money making – venture”. Unfortunately , both the artist’s impression and the “Pot of gold at the end of the Games” are comments expected from someone who could be writing for Walt Disney. The front page article gave only a short mention of the Whitewater fiasco. Are they attempting to distract from the real problem with these artist’s impressions? The money would be better utilised re-furbishing the Cleveland Swimming Pool. KGI
Many of the residents of the Redlands are not happy with our current Redland City Council and I am one of them. We need a RCC that works for us rather than themselves. We need to see the costs involved in the proposed whitewater rafting project for the Redlands. We don’t like to see a council controlled by Julie Talty with a group of non-thinkers who do whatever Julie orders.