THE TWEED
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www.tweedecho.com.au Volume 4 #7 Thursday, October 13, 2011
p10–11
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LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
‘Cowboys’ trash nature reserve Luis Feliu and Chris Dobney
MP backs rally against van park Luis Feliu
Tweed MP Geoff Provest has lent his voice to a growing chorus of locals opposed to controversial plans for a 230-site caravan park on the beachfront and an adjoining 37-lot housing development, describing them as ‘excessive’. A protest crowd of more than 500 people who rallied against the developments last Sunday was told that Mr Provest had written to the residents’ group to support their cause, saying he would stand up in parliament for them. The move pits him against his own government, which is jointly proposing the two developments south of Norries Headland through its Land and Property Management Authority
Cabarita Beach local Sophia Stacey entertains the crowd with her own protest song at last Sunday’s rally against the caravan park and housing estate planned for the southern precinct of the village. Photo Luis Feliu
(LPMA), and Tweed Shire Council, in its role as trustee of the coastal holiday parks and reserves. Cabarita Beach/Bogangar Residents Association president Neil Moores told a vocal crowd of young and old gathered in the park behind the surf club that Mr Provest believed that if the developments went ahead, they would have a negative impact on the community. In his letter of support, the MP said ‘We need to balance the competing prioirities of economic development and jobs on the one hand and keeping Cabarita special on the other’.
Bushland to be clearfelled Resident spokesman Ashley Baldry told the crowd the developments would be massive and both sites, currently well regenerated bushland, would be clearfelled by bulldozers and be four to five times bigger than Kingscliff ’s beachfront van park.
He said 90 per cent of locals opposed it as did most businesses in the village as well. The residents’ group had also been joined by other community groups along the coast wanting to show solidarity. Mr Baldry said residents felt the caravan park and residential estate was the ‘wrong plan for the wrong place’. He said the developments would threaten areas of very high ecological significance, pose safety and social concerns, create traffic problems and was not financially viable. ‘We could lose our off-leash dog beach and we’ll lose or beach access, there’ll be no public access through the caravan park, which means the public will be prevented from accessing it for more than a kilometre between Cabarita and Hastings Point. ‘There will also be a big impact on infrastructure with an additional
The blatant illegal clearing of koala habitat and planting of non-native grasses along a creek in the Cudgen Nature Reserve right next to the proposed massive Kings Forest subdivision has outraged a Greens MP who inspected the site last week. Sydney-based MLC Cate Faehrmann described the clearing, which runs from the boundary of the proposed housing development for up to 5,000 homes to the confluence of Blacks and Cudgen creeks, as ‘pretty gutless behaviour’. ‘Whoever is doing this are cowboys and need to be brought to account. I would like to see this incident used as an example,’ she said. Ms Faehrmann supplied The Echo with a picture of the clearing (see page 2) and visited the site following a tipoff from a local resident who discovered the destruction and reported it to an EPA hotline two weeks ago.
Authorities tightlipped
But authorities, informed about the destruction in July, are staying tightlipped. A spokesman for National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) told The Echo that an investigation into the matter was started immediately it was reported. ‘There’s not much we can say at this stage; the investigation is ongoing,’ spokesman Lawrence Orel said. He added that heavy machinery was involved and that a ‘considerable’ penalty applied for the offence. The illegal clearing is the latest of several large-scale incidents on the Tweed which have not been proscontinued on page 2 ecuted to date.
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But this time it’s in an area that is not only under the jurisdiction of the NPWS, but also believed to be an important corridor for wildlife, including possibly koalas. Trees and even native grasses have been stripped back right to the edge of the creek, exposing it to future erosion and removing critical habitat. Around seven years ago, former Greens councillor Henry James ran into a legal minefield when he suggested illegal clearing had occurred at Kings Forest around a drain, and predicted further clearing would probably occur outside the property in future. He was backed up by the NPWS at the time. The clearing then was believed to have been done to keep a drain servicing the estate clear. The councillor was hit with a defamation suit by the Kings Forest developer which was later withdrawn in court. Ms Faerhmann said the cleared area she inspected was well inside the nature reserve, about 20 minutes’ walk from the road. ‘Whoever has done this must know it is illegal, and clearing to creeklines is also a fisheries offence so [Department of Primary Industries] Fisheries should also know about it. NPWS should be very concerned that this type of activity is taking place on their land,’ she said. ‘The Office of Environment and Heritage needs to investigate this and look at all the likely culprits.’ Without pointing the finger at anyone in particular, Ms Faehrmann said that a culture of clearing and paying the penalty has grown up in the Tweed, where there is heavy pressure continued on page 2