Sunday 30 August 2009

False Cape propaganda exposed

Local environmental activist have been lobbing all levels of Government, especially Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett, to withdraw any further approval for development on the scarred False Cape land, across Trinity Harbour, East of Cairns.

Garrett's decision is expected this week.

The Cairns and Far North Environment Centre – the peak regional environment group for Far North Queensland, have been campaigned for more intervention from Council, State and Federal Government over the False Cape development.

Cafnec supporter Terry Spackman says the original plans of the developer validates his theory that the Reef Cove development is a scam.

"I thought that soon after I started going over there, but then I allowed myself to think they were serious," Spackman said today. "Partly it was gut feeling, but mainly the thought that people would have to be crazy to build a home at the bottom of a steep slope with great boulders on it."

Terry Spackman, a member of the Save False Cape action network, says that a geo-technical survey was not only recommended, but essential.

"That would have been the sensible and responsible thing to do, common sense says you should do it," Terry Spackman says. "But it was never done because it would have exposed the whole scheme for what it was: a scam. Seven years and what have we got? A lot of cleared land, two un-sealed roads and a couple of minor tracks."

He says there's no power, no sewage, no water, nor access road on the False Cape site.

"They have been busy making a lot of noise blowing up rocks and crushing them. The longer they could look busy, the longer could keep flogging off what they call 'absolute beachfront blocks' that were in reality absolute slimy rocky front blocks," Spackman says, who has surveyed the land on numerous occasions over the last four years.

With this decision in mind, the following propaganda from False Cape's Reef Cove developers written in September 2007, is worth noting.

"The figures they cite make interesting reading," Save False Cape activist Steve Brech says. "I'm sure most have seen this before, nothing new, but two years on it makes me think about how far we have come."
  • Over the past few years many of our purchasers of properties in Reef Cove Resort have asked for estimates of the anticipated settlement dates. These were provided based on information given to us by the developer of the resort, and were a best estimate at the time.

    Many of you may have wondered how and why a development such as this could take so long to complete (it has been almost 5 years now), and it is a reasonable question to ask.

    The short answer is that the developer has had to overcome many obstacles in the development process, many of which were totally unexpected and certainly not planned for. In the case of this development, the planning applications and approvals sought were complex, and many of the proposed designs and infrastructure planned were amended as a result of external organizations, Cairns City Council and Government departments putting pressure on the developer to provide alternative arrangements. These invariably were negotiated with the respective organisations and in some cases the developer was forced to take legal action to obtain the desired objective.

    One of these major hurdles was the approval sought to establish a road from the main road leading from the Yarrabah Road to the Reef Cove Resort entrance. Although the developer had purchased the land years ago, the EPA sought to block his application for the approval of the entrance road and the developer was forced to seek approval through the courts. This has been done and the courts have ruled strongly in favour of Reef Cove Limited in respect of that application.

    The implication of the above is that Reef Cove Limited is finally in a position to surge ahead with the development process, properly plan the stages, and more accurately advise on anticipated dates.

    There are still some obstacles to overcome, and these are being dealt with. When you consider however that $2,370,000 million was spent on construction in the last month alone, the scale of the project and the progress made becomes very apparent.

    After consultation with the project management team, we are pleased to advise we anticipate settlement of the 1st stage of the development in late Jan 2008/ early Feb 2008. This will apply to the residential lots in stage 1 and the respective superlots purchased by the various developers.

2 comments:

Nolymmi said...

Wow $2,370,000 million is a lot to spend in one month. Are you sure of that? That sounds more like the U.S. deficit.

Steven Nowakowski said...

The above italic text was taken from the developers website two years ago. It makes you wonder how John Ewens the developer of Reef Cove Resort can be capable of building a so called $230 million development when he can't even write a correct figure to his investors. I would assume he meant $2.37 million and not $2,370,000 million which would sink the world economy again..