Someone was watching the story last week on CairnsBlog about the beach dumping.
After huge loads of vegetation waste was dumped in beach car parks, north of Palm Cove, I published photos of the illegal dumping. It undoubtedly had to be a commercial operation, given the size and amount of waste.
Paul from Palm Cove telephoned me today and reported that the entire lot has been removed. By whom, we don't know. Maybe Cairns Regional Councillor Rob Pyne took up the challenge and asked his road gang to deal with it. Whoever did, thank you. Next time, I hope someone catches and prosecutes these blighters.
And in other pleasing news, the Fearnley Street drain mess that Molly helped me publicise back in October, has also been attended to. "Fearnley Creek Drain is no longer a shame," Molly says. "It's all beautifully repaired, safe and ready for back to school. A very smooth ride now." Council has been back to the site on at least three occasions, cleaning up the city eyesore.
Finally, I'm very happy to report that after numerous reports and videos exposed on CairnsBlog, a number of measures have been installed to prevent or limit sediment run off at Phil Hartwig's massive steep development at the top of Foley Road, Palm Cove. I know Councillor Paul Gregory took a particular interest in this one, as did Councillor Julia Leu.
Along with the Fiona Tulip and the Combined Beaches Residents' Association, Terry Spackman and myself spent a great deal of time monitoring this site late last year. This development went under the Council and EPA radar for more than a year. Even though the Residents' Association wrote to the State Government and communicated it to the Federal False Cape inspection team, nothing was done. It was only after we filmed run-off in October, following a small rainfall, that the unfolding disaster got the attention. Channel 7 ran the footage, that was first aired on my YouTube channel.
Council has subsequently sent staff to the Foley Road site and now initiated a new fine regime for developers and land owners that cause sediment run off with no preventative measures in place.
5 comments:
Excellent to see independant journalism making a contribution to the local commujnity. When my family were up in Cairns last year, we thought it was getting very run down.
By the way, I loved the photo u put up the other day on the drenched rat/mouse on the Cairns Esplanade.. you wouldn't see that in the Cairns Post (unless it had titties!)
Palm Cove Ratbag said...
I'm with Ratbag - why is there no report on the Hartwig mess?
I understand the work has stopped there anyway (Hartwig is himself the excavation contractor). Seems his daughter passed away a couple weeks ago.
Are you telling us that NO runoff has occurred from the torrential rains this past weekend? Has anyone gone up to look?
I sure the hell am not going.
Went and had a look around Argentea yesterday. A lot of damage around the creek from flooding, another tree gone into the creek by the cycleway. Won't be long before erosion takes care of the path. Downstream from the Park, a huge log left high and dry on the grass along with other debris. Would have like to have stayed and looked longer but the mozzies were monstrous and hungry.
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