Please read the background information below and fill in the questionnaire.  When you click the SUBMIT button your digital submission will be sent to the following agencies:

  • Mareeba Shire Councillors
  • Craig Crawford MP, Member for Barron River
  • Warren Entsch MP, Member for Leichhardt
  • Cameron Dick MP, Minister for Local Government and Planning
  • Leeanne Enoch MP, Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef, Minister for Science and Minister for the Arts
  • Andrew Powell MP, Shadow Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning
  • David Crisafulli MP, Shadow Minister for Environment, Science and the Great Barrier Reef; Shadow Minister for Tourism

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This questionnaire seeks to know the opinions of the Kuranda/Koah/Speewah communities regarding the following development decisions currently awaiting approval.

All questions relate to the old ‘Barnwell’ property currently being developed by Ken Lee, KUR-World Reever & Ocean and the local Easton family.  Both PLAN A and PLAN B below will ask MSC for a ‘Material Change of Use’ from rural zone to urban zone.  PLAN A introduces an additional 4,400 people to Myola, doubling the current Kuranda/Koah/Speewah population.  PLAN B will bring 239 residential lots and will eventually create an additional 2,300 more daily vehicle movements on Warril Drive.

PROPONENT PLAN A
The owner of the land now has until 30 Jan 2019 to submit (Coordinator-General stated a new project declaration lapse date of 30 January 2019) :

*TOTAL 373  RESIDENTIAL LOTS

PROPONENT PLAN B
Mareeba Shire Council is currently processing two (2) large subdivision applications in the Myola Valley:

  • 18 JAN 2018 RAL/18/0002, ROL – Subdivision (12 into 191 Lots in 8 stages), Reever and Ocean Pty Ltd C/- Cardno
  • 18 JAN 2018 RAL/18/0001 ROL – Subdivision (1 into 48 Lots in 2 stages), Andrew Easton, Adrienne Easton & Barbara Martin C/- Cardno

*TOTAL 239 RESIDENTIAL LOTS

  • COMMUNITY SUBMISSION QUESTIONNAIRE TO MAREEBA SHIRE COUNCIL
    Mareeba Shire Council please accept my digital submission below regarding the two (2) large subdivision applications in Myola Valley, Kuranda Region RAL/18/0001, RAL/18/0002.
  • PAGE 28/188 FNQ REGIONAL PLAN 2009-31 > PART D - Regional land use pattern
    Myola has been the subject of significant investigation and consultation in the past, including the Myola Feasibility Study in 2001, the Myola Planning Study completed in 2006 and detailed studies on the Kuranda Range Road. Myola is not considered necessary for urban development in the life of this regional plan. This position reflects the following considerations:

    • there is sufficient land available elsewhere throughout FNQ to accommodate growth within the life of this plan
    • the plan’s policies promote consolidation of population growth around existing urban centres that provide employment and service opportunities
    • oil vulnerability and rising fuel process have implications on satellite suburbs
    • the proposed urban development at Myola could not be accommodated by the existing Kuranda Range Road and the cost of upgrading the Kuranda Range Road between Cairns and the northern Tablelands is unaffordable in the short to medium term, in a regional and state-wide context.

  • PAGE 35/188 FNQ REGIONAL PLAN 2009-31 > PART E - Regional policies > FNQ regulatory provisions >Regional landscape and rural production area

    Intent The regional landscape and rural production area (RLRPA) includes lands that have regional landscape, rural production or other non-urban values, and protects these areas from encroachment by inappropriate development, particularly urban or rural residential development.

    Description
    The RLRPA includes land with one or more of the following values:
    • good quality agricultural land and other productive rural areas
    • natural resources such as mineral and extractive resources and native and plantation forests
    • water catchment and groundwater areas
    • areas of ecological significance, including
    • endangered and of concern regional ecosystems
    • Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and protected area tenures
    • essential wildlife habitat of the southern cassowary and mahogany glider
    • wetlands
    • beaches, islands and other coastal areas
    • outdoor recreation and regional open space areas
    • inter-urban breaks

    FNQ regulatory provisions
    The FNQ Regulatory Provisions restrict the following in the RLRPA:
    • further fragmentation of land holdings
    • urban development, except within specific urban zonings
    • residential development associated with tourist accommodation
    • expansion of rural residential development.

    The FNQ Regulatory Provisions support diversification of rural economies by allowing a range of developments including:
    • small to medium scale tourist activities
    • small scale industry, business and community activities
    • sport and recreation facilities.

    PAGE 102/188 FNQ REGIONAL PLAN 2009-31 > PART E - Regional policies > Economic development >Tourist development

    Integrated resorts that incorporate a permanent residential component within the resort complex are not considered consistent with the landscape values of the regional landscape and rural production area.

  • VIEW LETTER William F. Laurance, PhD, FAA, FAAAS, FRSQ / Distinguished Research Professor & Australian Laureate
    Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation / Director, Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science
    Excerpts below

    "Typically, for large development projects the secondary or ‘knock-on’ effects are even more damaging than the original project itself. These include the effects of transportation, water, and energy infrastructure—and the ancillary land-use changes and human migration that the project catalyses. It is apparent that developing the Myola Valley, and the Kuranda Region in general—converting it from its present ‘soft use’ as low-intensity rural land and rainforest regrowth to intensive, high-density human and infrastructure use—could be catastrophic for the greater Wet Tropics bioregion. As a conservation ecologist, this project waves every red flag for me."

    "It is fundamentally important, 30 years on from World Heritage listing of the Wet Tropics of Queensland, to ensure that what remains is protected and that further incursions into the bioregion are tightly restrained. In this region, most (70%) of the lowland forests have already been destroyed. Much of the upland forests on the Atherton Tablelands and Windsor Tableland have also been cleared and fragmented. Government support for improving protection outcomes for remaining critical habitat on freehold land is the first vital step to protecting the bioregion for the future."

    "I work in native and damaged forests all over the tropical world, and I can say with complete confidence that the Wet Tropics region is among the most ancient, most biologically unique, and most small and imperilled ecosystems on the planet. It literally leaps off the global map as a hotspot of vital conservation importance."

  • PAGE 9/39 Significant impact guidelines 1.1 > Matters of National Environmental Significance > Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

    • When deciding whether or not a proposed action is likely to have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance, the precautionary principle is relevant. Accordingly, where there is a risk of serious or irreversible damage, a lack of scientific certainty about the potential impacts of an action will not itself justify a decision that the action is not likely to have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance.

    • When deciding whether or not a proposed action is likely to have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance, you should consider only the adverse impacts that the action is likely to have. Beneficial impacts cannot be offset against adverse impacts. For example, a hydro-electricity scheme may have both beneficial and adverse impacts on the environment, however, only the adverse impacts are relevant when determining whether approval is required under the EPBC Act. If a project does require approval, beneficial impacts are considered during the assessment and approvals stages of the process.

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