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

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).

Our primary concern was the public interest: the natural environment and social justice. Neither of these seems to figure highly if
at all in the dollardrive calculations of liquidators, where the aim is to raise as much money as possible from asset sales for the creditors, one of whom is Ben Williams himself, sole director of the defunct development company. We are also concerned as to what asset a s s o c i a t e d information might or might not be available to potential buyers/investors.

No resolution for the marina and canal estate dredging, probably the biggest environmental problem, has yet come to light.  Residents may well cling to their dreams, or their hopes of recouping their over-sized investment, beyond all reason.
Retaining their land values depends largely on the canal estate/marina component of the development, despite the fact that they have their own documentation describing dredging to land as prohibitively costly. Here is the risk: another application for  sea-dumping - the last refused in 2009. The future of Port Hinchinbrook
(This article appeared in the Dec 2013 issue of Ecotone published by CAFNEC. You can download the December 2013 Ecotone here.)

Everything else is already up for grabs, and they want  this bit too.  The Queensland  government recently made sweeping changes to  the Nature Conservation Act which governs national parks, crucially including changing the
sole object of the Act (conservation) to include recreation and development.  These changes were criticised by the government's own Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel (OQPC) on seven grounds  related  to fundamental legislative principles
(FLPs), advice which the government has  brazenly ignored.

At meetings with the conservation sector last week in Brisbane, the  government advised that a review of national parks will now proceed in-house against a new set of guidelines based on a meld of biodiversity, economic and cultural values.  An important consideration will be the cost of maintaining the biodiversity values of a  national park. Parks which are costly to maintain because of weed invasion and other introduced degradation are likely to be de-gazetted,  developed, or grazed.

Neither scientific nor conservation sector  experts will be consulted; nor will there be any public consultation over the fate of these lands which were originally gazetted to be protected, for  the public good, in perpetuity.

The state government recognises that climate change is a reality, talks about resilience and adaptation, but refuses to face up to its contributions to increasing levels of atmospheric carbon (such as its dependency on coal mining) and its intended huge inroads on Queensland's natural biodiversity. 

Common sense dictates that now is the time to increase, not reduce, public investment in the protection of our remaining biodiversity. The real cost of the proposed cash conversion will be the permanent loss of priceless wildlife and wild habitat.

Once developed, these areas will never be returned to a natural state, they will be lost forever.

You can let our ministers know you do not accept changes that will allow permanent loss of priceless wildlife and wild habitat.  Email or call;

The Hon Andrew Powell, 
Minister for Environment, 
Email: environment@ministerial.qld.gov.au  
Phone: 07 3239  0844
 
The Hon Steven Dickson,  
Minister for National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing  
Email:  nprsr@ministerial.qld.gov.au   
Phone:  07 3224 7477  

For more information contact: 
Margaret Moorhouse; (Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook Inc.) 0427 724052
Yvonne Cunningham; 0419 433379
Liz  Gallie; (Mission  Beach Cassowaries) 0414  40315

Mission Beach Cassowaries facebook is a forum to share information about cassowaries so we can raise awareness 
and help reduce those threats.

Fragmenting cassowary habitat with residential housing has allowed us to gain a more intimate insight into identities of individual
cassowaries, their movement in the landscape, mating activities and dispersal of chicks.

We will be posting regular blogs of the fascinating lives of the Mission Beach Cassowaries on this blog.