A community group’s push for a conservation park to protect what’s left of the last tip of undeveloped land at Point Cartwright has two councillors at loggerheads.
As council comes to the pointy end of developing its master plan for Point for Cartwright Reserve and La Balsa Park, a petition with more than 1600 signatures was submitted to council calling for it to “step up” and protect it.
The Point Cartwright Care Group’s (PCCG) petition requests that council rezone the area to the Environmental Management and Conservation zone, and establish a Conservation Park to protect its nationally-significant qualities for future generations.
When tabling the petition on behalf of the PCCG at Wednesday’s Sunshine Coast Council meeting, Cr Joe Natoli said only one councillor, Cr Peter Cox, refused that the petition be received by council.
“I couldn’t believe it. It doesn’t commit council to anything other than tabling the report put forward by the community, but he chose not to support the submission of the report,” Mr Natoli said.
“It was unusual for a councillor to do that. He lives in Buddina; this is his community.”
Cr Cox sits on the Project control group (PCG) with Cr Natoli and Cr Christian Dixon. He had a clear reason for his refusal.
“The bulk of the public don’t want to see a lot change, but that wasn’t the reason I didn’t want to support it,” Cr Cox said.
“I don’t want to see the master planning process hijacked by any one particular group – I want to see it fair and equitable – and everyone have their say.”
The site in question is a mixture of land tender, and the zoning for the area is a recreation and camping reserve, which was decided back in 1933.
“I go there maybe five of the seven days of the week and most people would tell you the prominent use for the area is recreation,” Cr Cox said.
“I just don’t want to see it become a total conservation area and those recreational uses become extinguished. There is population growth and there is already a short fall of district rec parks in the catchment.”
He agreed it was an extremely important site.
“But we need to balance the recreational uses with the need for protection of the environmental and cultural heritage values, but I don’t want to see the environmental values override everything,” he said.
“I acknowledge the intent of the petition was noble but the preamble was potentially open to misinterpretation.
“I know there would have been people who signed that petition who weren’t across all the details.”
Council’s Point Cartwright Reserve and La Balsa Park master plan seeks to consider the future of the project area up to 2041, with a focus on the next 10 years.
The plan will identify areas for protection, future uses, circulation, car and bike parking, and new infrastructure.
Save Point Cartwright campaign
PCCG’s save Point Cartwright campaign was launched to bring attention to the nationally significant littoral rainforest, the migratory shorebirds and the sensitive and diverse ecology of the estuary and rocky shores of the reserve.
PCCG President Quentin Brown said the campaign was responding to the noticeable decline in the state of the reserve over recent decades.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to ensure Point Cartwright is properly recognised for its intrinsic environmental values and protected for future generations to experience,” Mr Brown said.
“The area is simply too precious to let it continue to degrade any further.”
Mr Brown said back in the 1960s when Kawana was being developed, the site was mined for sand and the location included a large quarry, but the area was never rehabilitated.
“That destroyed a large swathe of the remnant littoral rainforest from the hill through to the lower flats,” he said.
He said the reserve’s natural features may warrant much higher protections than council currently provides given the significance of the site’s attributes.
The reserve hosts a stand of Federally recognised critically-endangered littoral rainforest, international migratory birds in the summer months, the largest hatchings of endangered loggerhead turtles on the Sunshine Coast, and a globally significant community of Nudibranchs in the estuary.
“We felt it was important to ensure this message gets through as part of the current Master Planning process,” Mr Brown said.
He also said the Indigenous cultural heritage of Point Cartwright was highly significant.
“The reserve used to have a large fresh water lagoon and prior to European settlement the lagoon was the centre of a large Kabi Kabi first nation’s village,” he said.
“The typography is completely different today.
“There was rock art around the headland and the area was of religious and spiritual significance. It is important this unique history is properly acknowledged and celebrated through the Master Plan.”
He said PCCG will keep the online petition and physical petitions open until the completion of the master plan.
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