Walker Group’s Toondah plans and some of their newspaper advertisements have provoked angry reactions from local residents and a flow of letters to Redlands2030.
Have your say by writing to theeditor@redlands2030.net
Upgrading the Toondah ferry terminal is a state government responsibility
On Twitter currently, Walker Group touts the ‘better public transport and parking facilities’ the project would deliver.
But the essential public transport infrastructure upgrade at Toondah has been denied for many years already because the secret deal cooked up between Redland City Council, Walker Group and the state government did away with the state government’s obligation to upgrade the port.
That’s right….. the state government is the proper entity to build essential public transport infrastructure.
The Walker Group deal threw the Toondah port upgrade into the never never.
What the deal means is the public is hostage to a private developer to deliver what every other port in Queensland has, of right: appropriate public facilities with shelter and parking.
When might Walker Group deliver the better public transport and parking facilities they tout?
When will Toondah plans deliver a ferry terminal upgrade?
Should Walker Group get the go-ahead for its Toondah plans to build over Ramsar-listed wetlands, we won’t see this new port for many more years – until after extensive dredging works, the removal of the mangroves, stabilisation of the watery site, and construction of multiple high-rise apartment blocks. And then the units have to sell.
It’s a rotten proposition contingent on a slew of ifs: if the apartments are built, if the market is keen to buy, if the developer feels sufficiently obliged to tip in the funds to upgrade the port.
Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) is the big tourism attraction. It’s providing jobs. But the years of dickering over this monster of a development proposal (to take 20-30 years) have not helped tourism, or job creation.
In fact, Walker Group’s Toondah plans are exactly the wrong brand for tourism based around the natural beauty of Moreton Bay and the island.
Why can’t we just have the port upgrade we need – now – funded by the state government?
J.C.
Minjerribah
Save our mangroves, seagrass and wetlands
If the government must contract with a developer to build an attraction at Toondah, a destination for Cleveland, then locate it in Raby Bay where the mangroves were torn out decades ago.
Raby Bay has the perfect orientation, and deeper water. It’s a walk from the station (major point). It would enable a fresh design approach and a properly tendered process.
Given a clean slate, what would an urban planner advise?
Prime minister Scott Morrison seeks to respond to the challenges of climate change by allocating $30 million to REINSTATE mangroves, seagrass and wetlands – ’the liver of the ocean in the cleansing impact they have’, he said after his address to President Joe Biden’s climate summit last week.
With the release of the developer’s EIS breathing down our necks, this is the moment to take stock of why we are contemplating, in 2021, REMOVING mangroves, seagrass and wetlands for a development.
The EIS – paid for by the developer – will seek to convince the federal environment minister, and all of us, that they intend to only to disturb some small part of the Ramsar site, and its massive excavation, chemical treatment and intense development will improve the environmental values of the protected feeding location of threatened migratory birds. This circle cannot be squared.
We reflect on how many years the community has resisted a development here, and the mendacity and secrecy of government agencies in getting us to this point.
It’s a rotten project vested in regressive values that have no place in a forward-looking approach needed to see us overcome and cope with climate change.
The current Toondah plans are not set in stone
A decision to build the development at Toondah Harbour is not set in stone.
Moreton Bay’s rightful destiny as an internationally recognized Ramsar site should be preserved.
H.C.
North Stradbroke Island
Walker Group’s Toondah advertisements
I didn’t miss the Walker Group’s advertisement in the Redland City Bulletin (June 9) showing the NOW and FUTURE of Toondah Harbour.
These pictures bear no relationship to the facts, the images are nothing more than propaganda!
For example where are the 3,600 living areas producing 10,000 new Redlands residents expecting access to Redlands schools, transport, car parks, hospitals, and space to move about?
What about the impacts of 30-40 000 vehicles per day on the lives of existing residents?
Where are the endless lines of fully laden trucks on our residential streets?
Perhaps the magician could explain these untrue statements and pictures portrayed. Does a paying advertiser have any responsibility to be truthful in their displays?
Are Walker Group’s Toondah plans in the public interest?
And where is the public interest arguments about Walker Group’s Toondah plans.
And how fair is the debate when the paid adverts are a tax deductible cost for the proponent, but any community response (by Redland2030 or others) will be paid as an after tax cost by members of the local community. On the basis of costs alone it is a one-sided battle.
Where are those charged with advocating the public interest – Council and the State Government?
Oh that’s right – they are partners of the developer! It’s an uphill battle, with a complicit Council and negligent State Government siding with the interests of a private developer!
Perhaps the Redland City Bulletin could step up and truth test the Toondah propaganda.
D.F.
Cleveland
More Opinions Expressed By Redlanders
World Environment Day, Toondah Planning And Biased Reporting
Lights In The Mud Rally Shows Toondah Angst
More Opinions In Letters From Redlanders
Redlands2030 – 22 June 2021
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2 Comments
As a qualified marine biologist with 14 new species of crustaceans described from Moreton Bay I can state with confidence that any irreversible depletion of the Ramsar protection zone in Moreton Bay will have an adverse impact on the health of the marine ecosystem in Moreton Bay. Currently there are three species of marine turtles, two species of marine dolphins, commercial fish species, sand crabs, dugong, manta rays and baleen whales during the migration season. Politicians and certain staff in Redland City Council, who have no marine or ecological qualifications, have ventured into an agreement with a wealthy commercial developer. No developer should be allowed to build on public wetland within Moreton Bay, let alone a Ramsar protected shorebird zone.
Regardless of all nature’s problems in this scenario, we have been unable to build a stable canal system (Raby Bay revetment walls) repairs support from the city rate payers. Think Olympic Park Sydney hi rise disintegrating at 6 months WORSE Think Miami built on a swamp not a mud flat. 5 YEARS after the last tower is in the sky the first one crashes down.the responsible entity is long gone with the cash even our current councillors will be gone but the new generation of rate payers will be here to carry the can.In reality because the current government authorities want a free terminal to Stradbroke Island.