Win for Springbrook: Council halts work on cableway

The Respect Springbrook Mountain Coalition of 15 environment and community groups, welcome the decision by Gold Coast City Council yesterday to halt any further expenditure of ratepayer funds in investigating the routes of a cableway or more community consultation.

We thank Councillor Tozer for his advocacy for the protection of Springbrook National Park. The legal barriers that make a cableway unachievable, most notably the World Heritage and Commonwealth environmental protections covering any route to Springbrook, remain regardless of Council's decision.

Lois Levy, Coordinator of the Coalition, said:

Councillor Tozer's motion that the "Council discontinues further work on the Springbrook cableway, at this time, leaving the project to be externally proponent-led from this point on" is what should have happened from the start. It is not appropriate for Council to be using scarce community funds to benefit private proponents of a destructive, risky cableway proposal.

If there is a genuine proponent or consortium interested in applying to build a cableway to Springbrook it is their responsibility to spend their money, not Council's, on the multitude of environmental, social and economic studies required under current legislation.

The example of the State Government's refusal of a cableway in 2000 - the Naturelink proposal - should serve as a warning to any proponents. Since 2000 the legislation designed to protect our World Heritage National Park, and its endangered species, has become much stricter, including a new Commonwealth 'unacceptable impact' test that cannot be offset.

To comply with environmental law a proponent's investigations will have to be more comprehensive and therefore more expensive than in the past, with no guarantee of approval.

The Coalition requests the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the City of Gold Coast publicly releases all the community consultation documents and investigations into routes or corridors in the interests of transparency and accountability.

Lois Levy:

There is no known proponent, so the issue of 'commercial in confidence' in regard to these documents, paid for by ratepayers, should not be a barrier to providing them to the public.

The Respect Springbrook Mountain coalition welcomes genuine nature-based tourism that provides benefits to nature and communities.

Lois Levy:

A cableway is just a ride - with harmful and risky impacts - and should not be pursued under the guise of genuine eco-tourism or nature-based tourism, under the QLD Government or Gold Coast Council’s tourism programs.

Councillor Tozer, in his address to full Council yesterday, referred to the then Council's own objections to the Naturelink cableway proposal in 2000 citing concerns about the impact on the city's water supply and the lack of a sewerage system in Springbrook and potential for pollution of waterways feeding into the Hinze Dam.

Lack of town water and sewerage are just a couple of the many issues that demonstrate a cableway is not wanted or needed in World Heritage listed Springbrook National Park. Others relate to the destruction of protected vegetation and fauna habitat by building massive towers through the Park, the introduction of plant diseases and feral animals and weeds, the increased risk of fire and landslip and the impact of too many visitors for a small community which already has over ½ million per year. The original Co-ordinator General’s report spells these out in detail. The Coalition recommends to any proponent that they read this report.

Share Tweet Email