Inappropriate plans for destruction of Moreton Bay wetlands for a mega apartment project and converting quality farmland into small lot housing at Runcorn are discussed in letters to Redlands2030.
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Terri Butler – what about the Toondah wetlands?
I and many thousands of other Redlands and Brisbane residents have opposed Walker Group’s project proposals for several years. Some 85% of local residents in Redlands are known to be opposed. Possibly, only 10% of the community support the proposal.
The Redlands Council is ignoring community opposition.
What is worse the state ALP supports Walker Group’s proposal for a land grab of public park land and Ramsar wetlands. So much for principle and environmental protection!
We have been been waiting for Terri Butler, the Federal Opposition’s shadow environment minister, to speak out about what is going on at Toondah.
Unless I have missed it, there has been little vocal public opposition from her. She may have had discussions behind closed doors but, if they occurred, clearly they have been ineffective.
As she must be learning, these are major public issues that affect whole communities, issues which should be fully transparent and accountable.
I would ask that Ms Butler reflect on what she is going to tell her kids, and her friend’s kids, when they ask where all the wetlands have gone, why there are no longer any shorebirds, and why Moreton Bay now has so little marine life remaining.
If politicians cannot honestly say they did all they could to defend the integrity of the Bay’s precious ecology, they will have to admit – at least to themselves – their silence was one of the reasons for wetlands being destroyed for private profit.
I hope we can rely on those in positions of trust to speak out, and keep speaking out, on the issue of conserving Moreton Bay’s wetlands against the forces of greed, pillage and wanton destruction.
S.F.
Bulimba
Talks on Toondah
I refer to the recent article in the Redland City Bulletin titled “Talks on Toondah” which discussed what many believe to be a public relations exercise undertaken by the Walker Group in support of their $1.3 billion Toondah Harbour plan.
The article referred to a recent petition to the Queensland Parliament calling for a Toondah inquiry. As the Principal Petitioner, I thought the Bulletin could have reported that this was the most widely supported E-petition from Redlands, ever. That alone puts the Toondah proposal on the map in terms of unprecedented community concerns.
The article then reported that Council had responded to the petition earlier this year and pointing to an award the project had won for public engagement.
This is factually wrong. The Parliamentary Petition was never presented to Council. It sits with the Clerk of the Queensland Parliament for a considered response.
As for Council referring to a Planning Institute award, this is simply misleading. The ‘engagement’ in question took place in 2014, putting images and concepts to the community that bear no resemblance to the current plan. The 2014 consultation covered a mostly land-based development made up of about 800 residential apartments.
The scheme was later, without any consultation, mysteriously supercharged to a project of 3,600 apartments, mostly in the Moreton Bay Marine Park on land yet to be reclaimed.
The 2014 plan is a far cry from the inappropriate development plan now being foisted onto the Cleveland community, who rightly feel betrayed by all levels of government for this unforgivable sleight of hand.
S. M.
Cleveland
More farmland lost for housing development
Over the last months, the farm is being carved up and subdivided into at least 250 small housing blocks, in a joint development venture, by the original owners and a Chinese development group.
Mainland China will be the target for most of the house/land sales.
The deep red-brown clay loam has been a beacon of fertility all of my life, until recently, when now I struggle to see what is happening to it.
Anyway, who needs 100 acres of some of Queensland’s finest soil, just pave it over and put some houses on it.
Replacing a million cubic metres of premium market garden/ farming soil, a million years in the making, is a piece of cake…isn’t it !!!
R.H.
Runcorn
More Letters To Redlands2030
Toondah Q&A process questioned in letters
Letter To The Editor Re Walker Corporation’s Online Information Session About The Toondah PDA
Koalas, land clearing and 3,600 apartments
Cover image – Toondah’s mangrove wetlands
Redlands2030 – 20 August 2020
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One Comment
As a marine biologist with a PhD conducted at 40 sites in Moreton Bay I can say with confidence that the shorebirds will not be the only animals adversely affected if the Toondah protected wetlands are dredged for a huge concrete slab to support 3,600 units. Previous studies of the intertidal substrate at Toondah have indicated a high level of acid sulphate soils. These are disturbed when dredging occurs and the effect on seagrass beds and areas of corals are devastating. Dugong and turtles rely on healthy seagrass beds in order to survive, along with larval fish life, mud crabs and sand crabs. Commercial fishermen are not permitted to fish these areas for that very reason and no commercial developer should be allowed to interfere with the sensitive marine food chain of Moreton Bay.