DATE: 11 JULY 2017

TO:

The Right Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk MP,
Premier of Queensland,

On 11 July 2017 at the Community Forum (Brother’s Leagues Club, Anderson St.) local resident Keila put this question to the premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (awaiting reply):

I live in Kuranda, a destination for many visitors to this region because of its rainforest backdrop. It is the destination of Queensland Rail’s scenic rail trip, and of the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway’s rainforest experience. Many residents have chosen to live in this ‘village in the rainforest’ because of its environmental attributes, which also provide economic opportunities. However, Queensland is ever prey to killing the goose that laid the golden egg. A development proposal for the Myola valley, a development which sounds more like a theme park – Kur-World – than en Eco-tourism venture, is before your State Government. Although the FNQ Regional Plan 2009-2031 states that the Myola Valley is not supported for urban or residential development, and although this land is zoned rural and provides a corridor for the endangered cassowary, and although the Kuranda Range Road is already under stress from tourism and waste traffic, your government is being asked to approve the construction of

  • 373 high density residential homes
  • A university campus for 500 students
  • An 18-hole golf course
  • A 270-room hotel
  • 200 double storey resort accommodation units
  • A 300-bed education centre
  • A 60-bed health spa
  • A shopping centre, amphitheatre, day spa and 500-person capacity convention centre, and….
  • An adventure park

This totally self-contained and so-called Eco-tourism resort will double the population of Kuranda and increase pressure on the range road. It has already destroyed a seasonal breeding habitat for the endangered Kuranda tree frog and damaged the forest bridge that joins the north and south World Heritage Wet Tropics Forests.

My question is: will the State Government respect the current FNQ Regional Plan, developed with residents. If so, you must reject this inappropriate development proposal.

If not, why do we bother???