The Toondah Harbour proposal and future generations’ questions

At the recent Lights in the Mud event at G.J. Walter Park, one of the speakers said that the Toondah Harbour proposal has a build program of  20 years and the generation who will see and need to understand and live with this development are yet to be borne.

What do we owe to future generations?

This raises the question, what are the responsibilities of one generation to the next and beyond? 

Will future generations look and say “that was visionary” or will they wonder about the logic of building a 10,000 person residential complex on a gazetted Marine National Park when, at that time, regional and rural areas of Queensland were screaming for population following the fallout from the 2020 world wide COVID-19 pandemic. 

The haunting opening lyrics  from The Living Years (Mike and the Mechanics) “Every generation blames the one before…” prompts us all to ask the question – is the Toondah proposal visionary? 

Not from a now or your own perspective, but from a future generation perspective!  Will it rate alongside the Snowy Mountains Scheme, Sanctuary Cove, Springfield Lakes and the Sydney Opera House? 

Or, will it be another Sunshine Coast spaghetti jumble of roads, disjointed residential sprawl, void of urban planning and foresight? 

How would future generations judge the Toondah Harbour proposal?

Futurologists tell us that next generations will be environmentally aware, socially conscious, political active – unlike their parents and grandparents.  

Any future generations looking at 3,600 apartments in the Marine Park next to Toondah Harbour residential development could be expected to ask “Why was this done?”.  

What answers might any of us alive in 20 years time give to any such questions? 

We owe it to future generations to clearly document that which goes beyond “the science” which has become the fall back safety net of our politicians of all flavours. 

The Toondah Harbour proposal doesn’t address the social and human consequences of a massive urban development stuck out on the mud flats.

It doesn’t address health, police, schooling needs,  impacts to the existing public transport systems, roads and list goes on and on.

What would you tell your children and grandchildren if they asked why a high population density suburb was built in a Marine Park next to Toondah Harbour?

Be prepared now, as once the dredging starts it will be too late to hold any remorse. 

R.P.
Cleveland

Editors note – the Seventh Generation Principle and the Toondah Harbour proposal

Considering how future generations will be affected by what we do is not new thinking.

First Nations people have been doing this for thousands of years.

The Seventh Generation Principle says that in every decision we must consider how it will affect our descendants, seven generations into the future.

There is little evidence of the Seventh Generation Principle being applied in the history of decision making about the Toondah Harbour Priority Development Area.

But governments’ responsibility to consider future generations has now been established as a legal obligation.

Australia’s federal court has today formally declared the nation’s environment minister has a “duty to take reasonable care” that young people won’t be harmed or killed by carbon dioxide emissions if she approves a coalmine expansion

Redlands2030 – 8 July 2021