NIMBYism has a bad reputation. And quite rightly so! It is usually reserved for residents who only oppose a development that is close to where they live. Hence Not In My Back Yard. It’s probably something they would tolerate or support if built further away. A current situation has brought that attitude into sharp focus for me.
A new aged care development in my backyard
Aged care is important, and having such a facility in our suburb would be a good thing. But there’s something very important that seems to have been overlooked in this Sunrise Beach development application – the land is not vacant land. It is occupied by an iconic species, so amazingly beautiful that people travel from all over the world to observe it.
The Blue Care development around the Sunrise Beach shops will see the removal of a number of food trees frequented by the vulnerable Glossy Black Cockatoo. With formal approval already given for the development of an aged care facility, the writing appears to be on the wall. And while aged care is needed in our community, it should not be at the cost of yet another tick on the extinct species list.
And this is where I make my case for NIMBYism: to stand up for no extinctions in my back yard.
Biodiversity is under threat the world over. Our home state, Queensland, already has the unenviable title of one of the “top ten land clearing hot spots in the world”. And while Noosa itself has secured a significant amount of protected land, it is also witnessing a decline in species right on its doorstep. The plight of Koalas and Glossy Blacks is unfortunately a snapshot of a much bigger environmental crisis engulfing our planet at the moment.
We know our back yard and can keep an eye on it. We must fight locally for what we wouldn’t (or would) like to see happen in anybody else’s backyard.
Save our Sunrise Glossies!
(Featured image by Sieghilde Kren – see more of her amazing images on the Glossy Team Sunrise Facebook page.)
