The New Bulletin is a collation of articles provided by individuals or groups who share the ethos of the Cassowary Coast Alliance. The Cassowary Coast Alliance (CCA) is a collaborative hub for entities and individuals who are actively seeking good quality and long term public interest outcomes for the World Heritage listed Cassowary Coast in Far North Queensland. For more information email [email protected] |
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MEDIA RELEASE 17 October 2018 Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook Inc. Queensland Government wants built accommodation OUTSIDE resort lease – on self-reliant WILDERNESS walk! The last time we called HANDS OFF HINCHINBROOK! was in the 1990s – to protect Hinchinbrook Island from the depredations of white shoe brigader Keith Williams. Williams wanted track hardening of the Thorsborne Trail, rock walled harbours and other built infrastructure on Hinchinbrook Island - outside the resort lease.
"The purpose of all national parks is conservation" “These two portfolios denigrate the Trail as “rudimentary” (see below) – they don’t seem to understand that “self-reliant” and “wilderness” means: no buildings, no guides, no commerce.” “And they have ignored the recently reviewed Hinchinbrook Island National Park Management Plan.” The Thorsborne Trail is internationally renowned as a rare recreational experience; a 4-5 day remote area wilderness walk, available to those who can carry all they need for a nature immersion experience. Small walking parties – singles, couples, families – can appreciate this special experience, out of sight and sound of other walkers. The success of a wilderness trail is measured not by “how many” visitors but by whether or not natural processes remain undisturbed. On 26 April 2018 the DES Minister’s Office advised ASH that we would be notified of matters affecting Hinchinbrook Island. ASH received no such notification. FROM THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT
Thorsborne Trail, Hinchinbrook Island National Park The Thorsborne Trail is an existing rudimentary 32 kilometres class 5 trail along the eastern coast of Hinchinbrook Island off Cardwell, Queensland. The island is home to the world’s largest number of man-grove species and has significant environmental and natural attraction. The public has access to the track and associated facilities, albeit with a limit of 40 people at a time. There is a well-recognised potential for an upgrade of the track and boardwalks as well as construction of accommodation pods to enable 3/4-day walks. For more information on the existing trail, visit Department of Environment and Science website Located on the largest island national park in Australia, the Thorsborne Trail features public campsites, toilets, picnic tables and water collection points. The Trail is 32km long, not graded or hardened and, as a Grade 5 trail in its most difficult sections, is considered challenging to hike. Most visitors hiking the entire Trail take between three and seven days to do so. (FROM The Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games has transitioned to the Department of Innovation, Tourism Industry Development and the Commonwealth Games. We are continuing to update this website working with other Queensland Government departments.) SEE ALSO HINCHINBROOK ISLAND NATIONAL PARK MANAGEMENT PLAN, The government's MEDIA RELEASE: and The government's invitation for EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST HERE and HERE In response to The Age (20 July 2018) 'Australian governments concede GBR headed for 'collapse': This official recognition of the impending death of the Great Barrier Reef coral ecosystem hides an unpublicised and deadly multiplier. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and its political masters, the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments, are actively facilitating maritime constructions along the coast of Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA), in defiance of UNESCO’s clear warnings that the GBRMPA should stop ignoring cumulative, combined and consequential impacts – “death by a thousand cuts” (UNESCO Mission Report 2012).
Funding: In the Application Public Information Package the Queensland government made clear that it had not committed funds for the whole project – an obvious invitation to the developers (in line with Queensland government policy) who have been seeking an island marina at Mission Beach for 33 years.
World Heritage Area) is formally subsidising new development contrary to state planning and local zoning New developers are offered fee-free application, two years rate-free, and a waiver of the standard requirement to contribute to the public infrastructure costs their development will cause (CCRC website). Pity the 10,000 or so mum-and-dad ratepayers. And pity the conservation zones now approved for development. In sum: under cover of the destruction of the greatest reefal coral ecosystem on earth by climate change inaction, all levels of government are compromising what’s left of the GBRWHA - in the name of business and votes, unnoticed in far-away Victoria. I know Victorians love the idea of the “the Reef”; but few know that it is doomed, even without climate change, by government development decisions. Not just for Adani and ports and mines, but for dredging, reclamation, seadumping and bed-levelling inside the GBRWHA; by multiple coastal development approvals that are inaccessible to public consultation; by decisions made by the Queensland Government, the GBRMPA and the Commonwealth Environment Minister. Coastal fringing coral reefs of the GBRWHA are succumbing not to climate change but to coastal development, whether by direct destruction or by pollution (eg Magnetic Island, Cleveland Bay, Clump Point Mission Beach).
Australians are to be applauded for their in-principle support for the life of the GBRWHA - the interdependent life of reef and coastal corals, seagrass and benthic communities, marine mammals and turtles and a multitude of fish species. Now Australians can ask the governments to stop hastening its demise through approvals of additional and preventable coastal development impacts Margaret J Moorhouse Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook Inc PO Box 2457 Townsville Q 4810 [email protected] 0427 724 052
By Margaret Moorhouse, Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook
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The Cassowary Coast Alliance (CCA) is a collaborative hub for entities and individuals who
are actively seeking good quality and long term public interest outcomes for the world heritage listed Cassowary Coast in Far North Queensland.
December 2018
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