Thursday 26 June 2008

More Yacht Club spin from the Premier

The Parliamentary Secretary for The Hon Paul Lucas, the Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning has written to the Cairns Heritage Group, about the ongoing bid to save the 100 year old historic Cairns Yacht Club building.

Rob Williams, Chairman Cairns Heritage Group, is sick and tired of the politics being played out between the State elected officials and the local Cairns Port Authority, over the fate of our beloved 100 year old Cairns Yacht Club.

Williams replied...
  • 26th June 2008

    Dear Mr. Hinchliffe,

    Thank you for your letter of the 23rd Inst. regarding the Cairns Yacht Club and the Aquatic Building.

    My group, the Cairns Heritage Group, and 5,000 petitioners are well aware of the Queensland Heritage Council's "detailed" study.

    We also have hard evidence that the Chairman of the Heritage Council "Professor Brannock" supported the Heritage Listing whilst he was up here looking us over.

    His comments in the Cairns Post were quite specific. Two other members of the Heritage Council also supported the Listing, one in particular was Professor Janet Wegner, who was a member of the Heritage Council and who was barred from voting because she was a Director of the Cairns Historical Society.

    The Environmental Protection Agency was also involved in the preparation of the Heritage Listing, having noted it on their Coastal Plans and carried out a survey for the purpose of Heritage Listing.

    We also have hard evidence that the Cairns Port Authority forced the Cairns Yacht Club to sign a memorandum of agreement and placed an order over the place preventing us from making a further nomination.

    We are intimately familiar with the facts of the History of the Aquatic over the past 100 years from its inception on 30 March 1908 till its centenary in March this year.

    Yes, we know that the Cairns Port Authority administers control over the land, but Mr.Hinchliffe, the Deputy Premier and the Premier are the shareholders of the company!. They are the ones who are ultimately responsible for what the CPA does. They are the ones who would be subpoenaed to fronting the High Court along with others if the people of Cairns so wish that to happen in due course.

    I'm sure that if I was in the position of that of a shareholder, I would be listening very closely to what the people of Cairns want.

    I will send this to the person you nominated as the person who is involved in planning.
    Excuse me for thinking it was the Cairns Port Authority.
    (It turns out that Ben Thrower is in the Department of Infrastructure and Planning. )
    I am at a loss to understand how that will precipitate attention to our grievances
    .
    I would point out to you that the Cairns Yacht Club Inc. is not involved in our fight to save the Aquatic Building. The Cairns Yacht Club Inc. will soon be moving to their $6 million premises as declared by Ms. Anna Bligh before the last election.

    I trust this information will help the Deputy Premier decide which way he needs to send his advice.

    Yours sincerely,

    Chairman Cairns Heritage Group
    Rob Williams j.p.(Qual.)
    28 Lake Placid Road
    Caravonica Qld 4878

On the 12th May 2004, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Port Authority and the Cairns Aquatic Club was agreed to be signed under duress.

The Cairns Port Authority don't want you to see this. This monumental decision was recorded with much pain in the Committee's Minutes of CYC Meeting of 11th May 2004:

  • The CPA have moved that we sign the Memorandum. The Committee is disappointed with the outcome.

    We have no option but to sign the Memorandum and see what happens. If we don’t sign we have nowhere to go.

    The Committee discussed some options once we are at Precinct 12. We could take licence of the premises and set up the premises ourselves and run it or put someone in the premises to get it operational, then in the future take over.

It is a tragic state of affairs when the people are simply not listened to, and that the development plans of the local Port Authority is allowed to ride rough shot over the wishes of the majority of the local residents.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Yacht Club incorporated ie, the Commodore and Vice Commodore may want to move to the new small room at the new building but there are many Yacht Club members who do not want to move and would be keen to be involved in saving the builidng and the club in it's present form.