Glossy Talk at NICA

On Monday, 19 November Sue Davis and Bettina Walter presented at the Monday with NICA group get together to talk about the Blue Care development. The room was packed to the rafters with Tony Haslam noting that it was the biggest turn out ever – great news for our cause!

These slides accompanied Sue and Bettina’s talk.

During and after the presentation we found a great wealth of expertise in the room. It was wonderful to hear some of the historical background of development in the area, with Tony working for Noosa Council when the NAC, tennis courts and Flexi Learning Centre were built.

Attendees contributed to the conversation and raised some interesting questions that we can further investigate:

• How much did Blue Care actually pay for the property. If the land was purchased for a reasonably small amount compared to the value of land these days, is there a way Noosa Council can compensate them for the loss of this land?
• Has any work been done on the hydrology of the site and how and undercover carpark will affect it?
• The Traveston Crossing Dam decision was turned around even after it had approval – mainly due to an image of the critically endangered Mary River turtle. Bob Carey’s neighbour, Rebecca Tardent, knows the photographer who posted the pic that stopped the dam so anything is possible!
• Someone from the local bush care group said their traffic survey showed more than 7,500 cars passing the site per day – Noosa Council’s suggestion that traffic hadn’t changed over the past ten years is not correct.
• Are there any alternative sites that Noosa Council can “trade” – this was done for the Noosa tennis courts which were meant to be built somewhere near the Junction.
• There is a need to protect the whole Burgess Creek catchment, including better signage.
• At the NAC, experts transplanted some of the trees from that site but they all died – certain plants would only grow in THAT location, so offsets are not useful.
• When the TAFE was built, a bushland study group approached the architect to try and get them to make the best use of the site, which turned out well. If it’s possible to get in the ear of developers / architects early on, it is possible to drive changes.
• There are many different ways we can lobby for change – talk to Councillors to raise your concerns, write to Peter Milne.
• Although we are focusing our efforts on the vulnerable Black Glossy Cockatoos, there are MANY other species of fauna and flora that needs protection on this particular site.

Bob Carey showed us on the map just how they have fought over the years to now have these small pockets of parkland dotted through Sunrise Beach as we keep taking more and more chomps out of the native bush that supports our wildlife. Surely at some stage we need to learn from our mistakes and take a step back.

We thank everyone for their efforts and ask that you please spread the news far and wide. Thank you also to Birding South Queensland, Valda McLean and the Noosa Parks Association for their letters of support and advice on how we can fight for our glossies and the Sunrise Wallum.