MEDIA RELEASE 07 August 2012
Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook Inc.

Cassowary Coast Regional Council (CCRC) has made clear and strong responses to an attempt to have a new and different “Port Hinchinbrook Stage II” development proposal accepted as a mere “change” to a Development Application first lodged in 2008.

In 2009, state government departments advised the CCRC that an earlier “changed” version should be refused.

Nevertheless, the CCRC continued to grant the developer extensions of time to the present day, allowing the Application to remain “alive” under old legislation, the Integrated Planning Act. Otherwise, as a new Application, this battle-axe subdivision proposal would have to be assessed under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 and the FNQ 2009-2031 Regional Plan, which allow no urban development south of the present “Port Hinchinbrook”.

Hello from Coquette Point,

While Sydney is experience anticyclones and the Philippines the worst floods in living memory the weather in North Queensland has been perfect. Nights of 16 to 18 degrees and days in the mid 20’s with cloudless skies and gentle sea breezes, where else would you live?

Enjoying the weather has been tempered with the possibility of a 90 site, 240 bed RV Park being constructed on Lot 27V across the road from me at Coquette Point.

Hello from sunny Coquette Point,

Well what a difference a week can make in a person’s life! Last week I was lazily soaking up the sun at Dunk Island and enjoying the ‘birthday boy’s’ celebrations.

I returned to Coquette Point and suddenly fell ill. Within a short time I was fighting for my life in Innisfail Hospital.

At this stage the blood tests have not delivered any results but hopefully next week I will know.

As a cautionary tale I can tell you that last week I was doing  more  ‘cyclone clean up’,( without protective clothing) and it is my belief that I have somehow ingested some organism that quickly took over my body. No rash appeared, however, it resulted in my blood pressure dropping, my heart going at 200 beats per minute and my lungs filling with fluid. It all happened very quickly. The creatures of this world are powerful particularly little viral ones.

WILDWATCH by ANNE WILKINSON.

I will never forget our first sight of the little kingfisher. Yes, that really is its name, and it is tiny. Indeed, it is hard to picture a kingfisher which is only 12 centimetres long, but that is all this little gem is.

This measurement includes its strong, black beak.

It is Australia’s smallest kingfisher, and its latin name is almost as long as it is, Ceyx pusillus. But back to that wonderful sighting.