Another blog has joined the ever-growing stable of independent writers here in North Queensland.
As will all local blogs and interesting sites, you can find a full list on my favourite links on the right-hand side.
FNQ home claims to be another local Knobian (must be something in the water out here?).
"My passions are looking after my aquariums, learning about science, particularly evolutionary biology, snorkeling, and lazing in cafés," he or she says. "[My] blog will reflect these interests, but also veer off on tangents every now and again."
Whoever you are, welcome! Drop me an email and we'll do a Mocha on the nard.
Wendy Richardson, coordinator of People Against Demolishing the Yacht Club responds to CairnsBlog commentor 'Quickie', believed to be Kevin Byrne's former executive assistant Dennis Quick, about the debate over how many locals signed the State petition to save the historic Cairns Yacht Club building.
Perhaps instead of calculating the percentage that 11,000 signatures is of the total population of the Cairns Region (and by the way the majority of those signatures were collected in the Barron River, Cairns and Mulgrave electorates, which only number about 77,000 eligible adults) you might instead consider what percentage of the people who walked by the petition were pleased to find it and wanted to sign. Of course you weren't there, so you'll have to take our word for it, but we know it was a clear majority. A small number of people politely declined to sign or ignored it, and a very small number were vehemently opposed.
I can also assure you that I have been contacted by pensioners and others who were distraught that they could not get to where petitions were, nor did they have a computer to access the internet. One 80 year old collected over 170 signatures herself. A ‘radical, minority group Gran’ in your mind I guess, but actually, no.
I have also been contacted by quite a number of business people, including a major Cairns Developer who can’t understand why the building is not being incorporated into the Masterplan and a Real Estate Agent who admits he sells old Queenslanders to developers who then replace them with highrise, but who also says there ‘is a line in the sand, and demolishing the Yacht Club crosses that line significantly’.
Many others are aghast at what is happening including three eminent architects, an engineer, a self-employed accountant, a medical specialist and a GP who have all either written or rung me. Not your average ‘minority group’ members I suggest.
Now, about the heritage value ….. One of the most misleading statements put out by Desley Boyle, which it seems you have succumbed to, is the one about the building failing two heritage listings. Desley would like to have us all think that this meant it was of no heritage value, so let’s examine that.
The first heritage application put forward by the National Trust, failed because of lack of information. That is now acknowledged by all involved.
However, in 2003, the Cairns Historical Society and Dr Jan Wegner, lecturer in Local History and Heritage at JCU, assisted the National Trust to prepare the second application.... WHICH WAS ASSESSED BY THE TWELVE MEMBERS ON THE QLD HERITAGE COUNCIL AND FOUND TO MEET RELEVANT STATE CRITERIA. THE BUILDING WAS THEN OFFICIALLY LISTED BY THE QLD HERITAGE COUNCIL. THAT IS, THEY COMPLETELY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT IT WAS OF STATE SIGNIFICANCE IN THEIR LEARNED OPINIONS.
If nobody had objected, the building would now have been automatically permanently listed and therefore protected.
One month after their initial decision to list the building the State Heritage Council Chairman, Professor John Brannock told the Cairns Post “The demolition of the Cairns Yacht Club would be a terrible loss to the city and would reduce the social and cultural value of its waterfront irreparably.” In fact, Professor Brannock said there would have to be "quite serious factors" put up by the Cairns Port Authority - the only objector to heritage listing of the 85-year-old landmark (at that stage) - to make the council change its mind.
What followed then were four other objections that were all based on the same two things raised by the Port Authority. The first was an assessment by a heritage Assessor Gordon Grimwade, who was employed by the Port Authority.
Grimwade assured readers that the Yacht Club was of great heritage significance locally, quoting an earlier heritage assessment in 1994 which also said that. However, Grimwade felt the Yacht Club did not have state significance, though he gave no reason for that. (Bear in mind here, that a very ordinary house in Mooloolaba was recently State listed merely because it was used as a hostel since the 1930’s! Grimwade now serves on the Heritage Council which made that and many similar decisions. Clearly, the Cairns Yacht Club which has extensive early settlement and wartime history far surpasses that.)
The Queensland Heritage Council then employed an expert independent assessor, Michael Kennedy, who visited Cairns for 4 days to assess the building and its heritage values. Kennedy not only found that the building DID FIT STATE HERITAGE CRITERIA but openly disagreed with Grimwade’s opinion that it didn’t.
The second reason used for objecting to the Heritage listing was pointed out by Kennedy, no doubt because of its ‘circular’ nature.
The Cairns Port Authority had claimed there ‘was no prospect of conserving the building on the site’. This was due to their determination to not allow the Cairns Yacht Club Inc, who had occupied the building since 1917, to stay. They also did not intend to seek heritage funding to restore the building, even if the Yacht Club moved out and it was turned into a heritage tourism site, despite that fact that abundant State Government money was available elsewhere for similar projects (e.g. The Chinese Temple in Atherton which attracted $1.3 million a few years earlier). The Heritage Council accepted that the Port Authority would not allow the building to stay (although many people wonder what other pressures were applied to them) and so did not heritage list it. However, the Port Authority would have had to preserve it if it had been listed.
Get that Quickie? It can’t be heritage listed because it can’t stay on the site, but it could stay on the site if it was heritage listed! But it can’t be heritage listed because it can’t stay on the site. So there you have it – some of the questionable situation around the debacle of the failed heritage listings. A lot more can and may be said about this process – but let’s be clear about one thing – the twelve members of the Heritage Council agreed it should be listed and so did their independent assessor. The assessor who did not agree with state listing did say it was of considerable local heritage value at least. Guess you are more of an expert than them though, huh?
And finally Quickie, you obviously think that the collective voices of; The National Trust, the Register of the National Estate, a majority of Cairns Regional Councillors, the entire State Opposition, three heritage assessors, the 92 year old former Commander of the Catalina Squadrons, Sir Richard Kingsland, eight Torres Strait Islander families who specially contacted us to see what they could do, leaders of local indigenous groups, Senators Ian McDonald, Barnaby Joyce, Scott Ludlum and Bob Brown, the Hon Sharman Stone, Shadow Federal Heritage Minister and the Hon Peter Garrett, the Federal Heritage Minister, who suggested we pursue State Heritage listing again, along with 11,000 citizens and others who’ve voted in polls and signed previous petitions, and who can all see merit in the building staying where it is, are just a bunch of twits to be discounted! Or a ‘voracious Minority group’, at least by your estimation.
Exactly one month ago, rooftop rebel and False Cape crusader - way smarter that the fictitious and silly Cairns 'Caped Crusader', Terry Spackman and I re-visited the appalling Foley Road development.
I called it our next False Cape, in honour of the environmental disaster that took the local Council and the Federal Government over four years to react. It took action and much pressure from public lobbyists like Save our Slopes, Mark Buttrose, Steven Nowakowski and Terry Spackman to name but three, for anyone to take the issue seriously. In the meantime, a huge amount of damaging sediment run-off has occurred at East Trinity from the False Cape site.
The folk from the Combined Beaches Residents Association, who have pursued the ill-conceived Glen Corp developments at Clifton Beach and Hedley's work at Paradise Palms golf course, alerted me to Phil Hartwig, a rouge developer who is excavating vast amounts of his land at the top of Foley Road, Palm Cove.
When Terry and I visited and filmed the site four weeks ago, it was dry. We predicted, come the wet season, this whole hillside will wash downstream.
Saturday morning, the rains came, and I got a 6am telephone call, and we were off with cameras in hand to capture the evidence. The drive to the once lovely neigbourhood of Palm Cove, is now scarred by what is happening at the top of Foley Road, on the Western side of the Captain Cook Highway. We really know Palm Cove as the community alongside the sea, but developers have a way of stealing names and stretching boundaries for marketing real estate.
When we posted the first lot of footage on CairnsBlog a month ago, only Councillor Paul Gregory and Robert Pyne responded. Gregory, whose Division one encompasses False Cape, knows all to well about poor development controls. He's probably the most experienced Councillor in regards to sediment controls. You would have expected Councillor Sno Bonneau, who used to look after this area, to be at the forefront of this development. But he's no where to be seen. You have to ask why and what part he played in representing the approval for Phil Hartwig.
It's important to note that Councillor Gregory is also chairman of Council's Works and Water committees, and is also the Local Government director of Terrain Natural Resource Management, although the website hasn't been updated. Terrain claims to support the Wet Tropics region to "develop local projects and solutions that make sense not only for our environment but also for our community and economy." Well, they need to be very aware of what this rogue developer Phil Hartwig is getting away with at Foley Road, Palm Cove.
Here's some footage that we filmed over the weekend, after a small amount of rain. The results are shocking.
According to the Cairns Plan, waterways are all protected and have to have minimum setbacks. These are called riparian corridors. The developer behind Foley Road, Phil Hartwig has clearly breached this.
Why aren't Council planning officials enforcing these controls?
If you went into a shop, took something off the shelf and walked out without paying for it, the store security and police would be onto you within minutes. Why is it when you deliberately breach local bylaws, with such devastating effects, no one says a thing? There has to be months and sometimes years of protests from the public before any action takes place.
The ongoing saga at Foley Road, comes just weeks after chief Council Planner, Peter Tabulo said that a majority of building sites failed to meet the minimum industry standard to ensure control on development sites. He and his department have held a series of forums with builders and developers on this very issue in the last eight weeks.
“The implementation and maintenance of these basic environmental protection measures ultimately promotes healthier waterways,” Tabulo says. “Healthy waterways lead to healthier estuaries and a healthier Marine Park which we all like to be able to enjoy whether it’s better fishing, diving or just cleaner beaches.”
Well, what we witnessed over the weekend at Foley Road is in direct contravention to this.
Such activities give us little confidence in our senior public servants to manage our environment and our civic affairs, when these developments go unchecked and un-policed.
A shocking footnote to this sorry saga, is that the Combined Beaches Community Association alerted Drew McLean, at the Federal Environment Ministry a year ago, with a number of letters, and have never had one reply.
Terry Spackman has asked Councillor Diane Forsyth to put forward a motion at the next Environment and Planning meeting to mandate Council officials to uphold and police the conditions of Development Approvals. Sounds bizarre that you'd even have to put up such a motion.
What are you doing about this Cairns Regional Council?
You would have thought that someone with a title of 'Community Relations Engagement Co-ordinator' would be all ears. Not this one!
When Cairns Regional Council employee, Meredith Wilsch, received an email from me last week about the battle to save the Yacht Club, she got rather upset.
"Mr Moore, I did not subscribe to your email mailing list and did not give my consent to receive unsolicited messages," telling me off like a naughty schoolboy, she said in a rather turt email last Wednesday morning.
Meredith's email address is on the Council's media distribution list, which I use for various community groups that want media distributed. However this community engagement officer only has selective hearing it seems.
"As your message does not contain a functional unsubscribe facility, as required under the Anti-Spam Act 2003, I hereby request that you remove my email address details from your emailing list," Madam Wilsch put me in my place.
How dare I try to inform her of some community concern?!
Meredith also helped co-ordinate Council’s new corporate image and logo re branding, a task that involved a deal of community input.
I'd like to remind Meredith Wilsch, and other Council employees, unlike a commercial private business, our Council is a public company. As employees of the Council, their salary is paid by the residents of Cairns. It's shareholders, being the ratepayers and residents, have a rightful duty to inform and educate it's staff about matters of concern to the community. They are here to serve, and to serve us all.
It's of great concern to me that such attitude still permeates through our Council, especially at this middle management level. With such preconceived ignorance so prevalent, it's no wonder Council officers ignore and rule without talking with their community.
Meredith Wilsch should be ashamed to call herself the Community Relations Engagement Co-ordinator, when she talks to people like this. She needs a lesson in 101 PR. This kind of dismissive communication is a product of the Byrne regime.
For the record, Meredith's telephone number is 4044 3120, or you can email her on M.Wilsch@cairns.qld.gov.au. Her mobile number is 0407 162 953. I just think that our Community Engagement officer should be contactable by anyone about any issue of community interest, don't you?
She's still on my email list.
UPDATE:
I should have mentioned, that this 'threat' tactic that an unwanted email received at Council is 'spam' is used by a few it seems.
Just a couple of weeks ago, another CRC ratepayer received a threat to stop sending 'spam' from Councillor Alan Blake.
"Remove this spam from my email address, Cr Blake told Ray Taylor. "Unwanted emails will be dealt with as per the Privacy Act," he wrote in a September 22nd reply. And we wonder how our Council staff get to behave in such an unprofessional manner?
Both Blake and Wilsch need to understand that spam is something completely different. They both refused to engage and discuss issues with the public. This is a fundamental breakdown in our democratic system.
Peter Zabski attended last weekend's rally at ANZAC Park to save the Cairns Yacht Club building. He shares with us his thoughts on the debacle and that of the callous local and State politicians.
Today I am sitting in the Cairns Yacht Club Building overlooking the low tide across the inlet. I look over the building and think, what if the building had a voice? What would it say?
"I’ve been here longer than any one of you who live here. I’ve seen so many of you come and go, some have stayed. I’ve seen the city change so much, and especially noticed the very tall structures all around, pressing in on me.
I still remember how difficult it was for the craftsmen and builders who put me together from the finest rainforest timbers. In 1920 when I was very young, my metal was surely tested! Thanks to my deep anchoring supports, I survived nature’s fury. In 2000 I weathered Cyclone Stephen sustaining only superficial damage.
I’m hearing decisions are being made to remove me; I’m told I only have 5 weeks left before I’ll be stripped. I don’t know what I’ve done that I should be treated this way! I’ve always kept my doors open to you all. I cannot come to terms that I won’t be with you much longer.
Now is a good time to say my goodbyes. Thank you to all who built me – I was an eye-catcher back then! To the club members who in five months resurrected me in February 1920 when I didn’t think I’d pull through – I’m eternally grateful – thank you so much.
Thank you to all the patrons when I was the Cairns Aquatic Club – they were the best times of my life!
I’m leaving you all with a broken heart, because I’ve really loved what joy you’ve given me and all the fun we’ve had. Nothing can replace that. And to those job it is to take me down, please be careful. Goodbye all."
NB: This was sent to the Cairns Post over a week ago, however it has not been published. I think it’s worth sharing with everyone.
Yacht Club demolition protester Terry Spackman served a night in jail for his beliefs. This morning he will go before a magistrate.
A large contingent of police turned up yesterday morning, followed by the Fire Service with two large appliances. The dilemma was heightened as Workplace Safety regulations does not allow workers to access a roof that has no barrier.
After Terry refused to sign the bail conditions that would prevent him from returning to the building, he was locked in the Sheridan Street watch house overnight.
Terry had earlier scaled the building around 6am with a supply of food, chair, phone, and water. He voluntarily decided to come down at 1pm, was arrested and taken into custody for breaching the security fence that surrounds the historic Yacht Club.
Spackman will appear in the Cairns Magistrates Court No 1 at 9.30am this morning. If he pleads guilty, he will make a statement once released outside the courtroom. Yesterday, Anton’s Demolition had been planning to bring cranes on the site and remove sections of the roof, however were completely prevented from doing so by Terry’s actions.
A frustrated and nervous Cairns Ports Safety and Emergency Manager, David Good looks on as Terry Spackman disrupts work to demolish the Yacht Club building on the Cairns waterfront.
The Cairns Port Authority have now employed private security guards to watch over the building 24 hours a day, no doubt at considerable expense.
Due to Terry's efforts spreading the word about this significant Cairns building, has now spread across the country. If anyone would still like to get involved in this direct action campaign, you can contact Bryan on 4052 1563 or 0403 049 566.
The saving and protecting of this historic building is an easy thing for any government to do. It would be a win for the community and a win for listening to the will of the people.
The Labor government has lost substantial support over this needless heritage destruction. They have lost connection with the people by their negligence over destruction of the Cairns Yacht Club.
This issue is now a defining moment for all Cairns Labor politicians and that of the Cairns Regional Council.
Local Councillor Alan Blake, watching over the old club house from his luxury apartment suite, has also failed to enter the debate publicly.
It's a shocking and sad reality that when elected politicians cannot engage and represent their community, they are unfit to serve. They simply don't deserve the respect or the salary that we bestow upon them.
Following yesterday's Police altercation stopping citizens breaching the fence of the historic Yacht Club, around 6:30am this morning protesters breached the security fence surrounding the Yacht Club.
Terry Spackman has now unveiled the Australian flag and a Eureka flag on the roof of the Yacht Club. Terry is now staying on the roof this morning to stop demolition work from proceeding.
He is conducting a sit in protest of the Heritage destruction of a community significant building. He is representing the 11,000 people that signed the petition to retain the building where it is for all the Cairns community.
He aims to stop demolition work for as long as possible.
"The Bligh Labor Government have forgotten the people," Terry said from the roof this morning. "They are only representing property interests."
"The boundary of the land here is also in dispute according to the government," Terry Spackman says. "They claim that they don't know the true boundary of the Yacht Club, so therefore how could this land be redeveloped or sold?"
"This is reason to stop this work and tell the people the truth," says Terry Spackman.
"This is so very easy for the Government to do," Bryan Law told a packed media gathering yesterday afternoon.
In what could only be described as the largest police presence at a single event in recent Cairns history, yesterday afternoon around 35 police turned up to stop protesters entering the Cairns Yacht Club site, under orders from the Cairns Port Authority and the State Labor Government.
The Queensland Police Service even had officers stationed in a boat in the harbour, just in case there was a breach from the seaward entry.
Just days after we learn that the Police are underfunded and have insufficient staff to look after our streets, with horrific violence on the cover of the Cairns Post every other day, they seemed to find a massive line up of boys and girls in blue to encircle the entire Cairns Yacht Club building Tuesday afternoon.
Legendary community campaigner Bryan Law, and a number of local supporters gathered at the site in an attempt to scale the perimeter fence to stop demolition work.
"We are here to hold this Labor government to account for the utter destruction they are undertaking right before our eyes," he told a packed media circus. Even the Cairns Post turned out, surprising when there was a crocodile attack just a few hundred kilometers away at the same time.
A vote of those gathered was undertaken, as a precursor to next year's State election. "This is to show the Premier what the people of Cairns will do at the ballot box next year."
Byran Law, dressed as conservative local Judge Peter White, took his cutters to the fence and was warned to cease, otherwise he would be arrested under the Breach of Peace detention. He ignored their caution, and was subsequently placed in the back of a paddy wagon and delivered to the Sheridan Street Police Station. However, minutes later was released, without charge or conditions.
It's obvious the Government doesn't want more attention given to this biting community issue. The Cairns Port Authority have also given their weight to ensure as little action is given to the protesters as possible. However, they appear to have failed in this so far. Premier Bligh is however remaining silent on the issue and will not comment publicly anymore.
Another local campaigner, Sharon, also attempted to scale the fence as was cautioned and removed by Police.
Over 20 media outlets around the region and throughout the State took an active interest in the protest action.
"I don’t think we could have asked for a better media return on our efforts today. They really can’t resist direct action, Bryan said.
However, this is not the end of it. Further direct action will be undertaken at the site during the rest of the week, however, unlike yesterday's protest, there will not be advance notice to Police. The aim will be to stop demolition work.
One of Cairns' leading city architects, Mark Buttrose was also present and show his support for the protest action. Buttrose is a veteran of his work to stop development on False Cape. He says that the city's heritage should be saved and integrated into modern development. "Our history is being destroyed, and yet it's very easy to incorporate this into the City Port plan," he said. Buttrose is understood to be in discussions with officials in the Premier's department to demand a total rethink of the Port Authority's plans to redevelop the Trinity Inlet waterfront.
This is not the attention that local MPs want. It is not the attention that the Premier wants. However, after nearly 5 years, the Labor State Government, supported by the former Byrne-led Council, and even the regional tourism body, failed to support the retention of this historically significant building.
Cairns Regional Councillor Diane Forsyth is off to Brisbane today and will try to seek a meeting with Anna Bligh. "I will sit outside her office and ask to be heard," she said. "I'm also asking again for our CEO to demand a formal response from Bligh to Council's request for a meeting."
Dianne Forsyth also acknowledged that Mayor Val Schier should make a public statement about what is going on. Val is the primary spokesperson for our community, she supported two motions to engage in talks with the Cairns Ports and the Premier. The Mayor of our city and region, needs to speak up and be heard.
"We have not lost yet. The next week or two will tell another chapter in this long story to save this beloved part of Cairns' history," Bryan Law said.
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