Date: 21st March 2017

To: Karen Oakley, Michele Bauer and Steven Tarte

Queensland Office of the Co-ordinator General

Dear Karen, Michelle and Steven,

It was a pleasure to meet you in Mareeba earlier this month when the ‘KUR-World’ proposal was the subject of discussion.

I realise this follow-up email raises matters that may fall outside your specific responsibilities.

Nevertheless, I hope it’s useful to share with you what I regard as yet more elements of the bigger picture surrounding this development proposal.

WHY HAS THIS GROSSLY INAPPROPRIATE AND VERY UNPOPULAR PROPOSAL PROCEEDED SO FAR?

At the meeting, a number of us expressed the view that the proposal should never have got to this stage.

I wonder, however if we adequately conveyed the depth of our annoyance and the reasons for it.

All of us are living through a time of unprecedented global ecological crisis. Many of us have observed – over several decades – how society as a whole has failed to appreciate the depth of this crisis and the need for intelligent and purposeful change to transition fast to sustainability. This certainly applies to most of our so-called political leaders.

Meanwhile, evidence of the crisis continues to pour in. When a few scientists first went out on a limb in the 1990s to suggest that mass collapse of the Great Barrier Reef was a real possibility, they were widely dismissed as scaremongers. Tragically, within less than two decades they have been vindicated, perhaps faster and more dramatically than they imagined. Globally, we are in an era of dramatic biodiversity loss.

The solution has been apparent for decades: we must limit ourselves henceforth to genuine “sustainable development”. This was the crux of the 1987 report by the World Commission on Environment and development (Our Common Future). Many national and state governments – including governments in Australia – subsequently endorsed the principle of sustainable development in numerous policy documents and in legislation.

Sadly, most governments (including all Australian State and Federal governments) failed to develop intellectually honest and rigorous policies to implement sustainable development. Nevertheless, lip-service is still paid to the principle, even in Queensland.

One excuse given for this generation’s failure to pursue genuine sustainable development “on our watch” is that the community as a whole isn’t ready for radical pro-environment policy.

Yet here – in this case of the Kuranda region and the ‘KUR-World’ proposal – we have a community that’s supportive of sustainable development and actively opposed to unsustainable development.

Many of us would like to go a lot further than merely stalling unsuitable proposals. We’d like an urgent program so our community, at least, quickly becomes completely carbon-neutral, adopts best-practice to conserve biodiversity and cares for our wastes and effluents in a manner that’s truly sustainable. None of these goals are easy to achieve. To do so would require focus and some external assistance.

In this context, it’s infuriating that instead of having our commitment to sustainability supported and our voluntary time freed up to work on really useful goals, we are yet again faced with a bogan development proposal that a child of ten can see will impact negatively on our local biodiversity.

It is very annoying. In the opinion of many of us, this proposal should never have got as far as this.

If the developer wishes to create a dense complex of concrete and manicured lawns there is plenty of degraded land closer to Mareeba that may be suitable, subject to appropriate environmental controls.

If he wishes to develop a genuine low-key “EcoResort” a site in the Kuranda area is a possibility – but Mr Lee has shown little genuine empathy for – or understanding of – the notion of ecological sustainability. His background in Macao – whatever it is – does not seem to have prepared him to develop and manage a site of high ecological ecological values and sensitivity.

The best outcome now is for the developer to drop his proposal and/or the government rules that the proposal merits no further consideration.

Government has ample grounds for doing so, including:

• Conflict with the FNQ 2031 Regional Plan
• Conflict with the Mareeba Shire Council Plan (finalised mid-2016)
• Protection of endangered species
• Protection of World Heritage values
• Infrastructure concerns
• Strong community opposition

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

The subject of water infrastructure came up at the meeting. Mareeba Shire Council has decided to spend public money “upgrading” Kuranda’s water supply. It just so happens this may assist the developer of KUR-World – and it will certainly assist another ludicrously inappropriate sub-division called “Eco-Jumrum” that’s destroyed yet more forest and is also marketed with the term “Eco”.

What was not mentioned at our meeting, when this topic came up, is that the current Kuranda water supply is sourced from the Barron River. Such filtering of the ton water supply that does occur does not remove toxins such as herbicides and insecticides. Yet literally hundreds of different kinds of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides are in use in the agriculturally-diverse Barron catchment.

It’s true that some monitoring of river water quality occurs, which seems to indicate that so far each synthetic chemical on the test-list is below the allowable national drinking water quality standard. This takes no account, however, of the combined synergistic effects of these numerous toxins or the toxicity of chlorination bye-products that are formed prior to human consumption.

For these reasons, it has long been the view of the local Friends of the Earth group that our town water supply (as well as Mareeba’s, which is also sourced from the Barron River) is probably unsafe, although it’s hard to be certain. As far as we’re aware, the Queensland Health Department has made no attempt to investigate our concerns.

We have expressed this opinion to Council over many years. Our main proposition – that the river water may well be unsafe to drink without elaborate filtering (eg activated charcoal filtering), and in the interim the community should be warned of possible health risks – has been ignored.

Now Council is upsizing the very same water supply that we expressed concerns about over many years! It uses our money to do this, after zero public consultation.

Apparently the MSC solution to a potential environmental health problem is to ignore community concerns and upsize the potential problem.

LOCAL DEMOCRACY

In the March 2013 de-amalgamation referendum, most people in the Kuranda region voted AGAINST being part, once again, of Mareeba Shire Council (4:1 against).

Many of us have little confidence in this Council or respect for the values that appear to motivate it. Overwhelmingly, its decisions are developer-driven. Typically it treats the environment movement as a nuisance, not a partner. Over decades, Kuranda rarely if ever has had an actual local representative on Mareeba Shire Council and no attempt has been made to ensure we do have a guaranteed voice (the Mayor never consulted us when advocating since de-amalgamation for a “united electorate” in the Mareeba Shire). The last time Kuranda was assured of a Councillor elected by us was during the brief life-span of the Tablelands Regional Council which utilised a ward system – so the move back to a smaller Council in 2013 did not empower the Kuranda region community.. quite the reverse!

In simplistic terms, Mareeba has long been known as a centre of support for One Nation. Kuranda has long been known as an electorate in which The Greens do exceptionally well. I think it’s fair to say, having observed local politics here for nearly two decades, that the innovative spirit and progressive values of the Kuranda region community are frustrated by the backward-looking materialism of our local political masters. In our region at least, local government has not been a reliable friend of conservation and remains almost gleefully at odds with the Kuranda community’s aspiration to develop a sustainable way of life.

This is not to say the Kuranda and Mareeba communities are at each others throats. Far from it. There are many bonds of friendship, inter-marriage, commerce, sports, shared work etc that unite us. Nevertheless, the Kuranda community, which contributes a very significant minority of Council’s rates base, has been consistently and rather ruthlessly disempowered by people with quite different values.

I’ve increasingly come to the view that the Kuranda region (from Koah/Chlosey to ‘Top of the Range’ to Mona Mona and Oak Forest) deserves to become a Local Government Area in it own right, with its own small Council and a mandate to make haste developing a sustainable way of life – something which eventually even the most recalcitrant communities in Australia will have to emulate.

The KUR-World saga – and the refusal of our Councillors too even discuss it with us or articulate an opinion (other than admiring the “visionary” qualities of the developer) – highlights the absurdity of our “local democracy”

We fund the wages of Councillors who don’t even reply to our letters on a matter of such local significance and who, when pressed for a reply, cower behind the coat-tails of the unelected CEO. To add insult to injury, our local State MP has made one public statement about Kur-World which is blatantly misleading and deceptive (favouring the developer); he has ignored appeals to correct the record and has now joined the growing number of officials and politicians who can’t/won’t say anything further about the development, allegedly because it is now subject to “integrated assessment”.

At Federal level, our MP is ecologically illiterate and the Federal Environment Minister – responsible for the entire continent of Australia, Tasmania and numerous external territories – manages his portfolio responsibilities on a part-time basis.

THE EXCEPTIONAL VALUES OF THE MYOLA AREA

A final word regarding the exceptional ecological values of the Myola area.

In the documents we left with you we included the following quotation by Dr Conrad Hoskin (currently with JCU):

“The Kuranda treefrog is but one of the treasures of the Myola region. Remarkably, the Myola Palm is also restricted to the Myola region, occurring at some of the same stream sites as the Kuranda treefrog. We don’t know the evolutionary history of this endangered palm, but the fact it is restricted to the same small area as the frog suggests some shared history. More broadly, diversity in the Kuranda region is very high due to its position in the middle of the Wet Tropics. its mid-altitude  elevation, and the fine scale mix of a diverse array of habitats. For example, I have recorded 16 species of frog at the Kuranda tree frogsites, including two endangered species: the Australian lace-lid and the common mistfrog. The cassowary and the red goshawk are two spectacular and threatened birds that I have had the privilege of encountering in the Myola region. Another key value of the Myola region is its location at a narrow neck between the major northern and southern blocks of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area. It acts as an important area of gentle terrain connecting the rainforests of these two regions.”

Source: Extracted from “In the zone: the origin and future of the Kuranda treefrog” (p13. Wildlife Australia magazine, summer 2007) by Dr Conrad Hoskin

Due to a printing slip-up we were unable to leave you with a map, as intended, so this is an opportunity to correct that omission. It shows quite clearly the significance of this ‘Kur-World’ proposal for maintaining a north-south corridor within the Wet Tropics.

This map is below. To the north of Kuranda, large recently-cleared area of plantations (privatised under the Bligh Government with NO prior consultation) are apparent. They present a significant barrier to species connectivity. So does the village of Kuranda and large cleared areas nearby. On the caostal side of the range, of course, the Barron Falls and lower Barron River is a significant barrier for many terrestrial species.

If the Barnwell Estate is also transformed as the developer proposes, north-south connectivity to the west of the range will be further eroded.

The previous generation was wise enough to declare the Wet Tropics World Heritage to protect its globally-significant values for all future generations.

It would be tragic if these unique natural riches are eroded and ultimately squandered by feckless behaviour on the part of our generation.

Syd Walker
Kuranda

Written in a personal capacity