Friday, 2 June, 2023
There is only
ONE Noosa 12608961-JC22-23
Red Cross picnic success
Tea-rrific result for Cancer Council
Peak charity event
24-page liftout Property Guide
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INSIDE
PR OP ER TY
Concours D’Elegance in Noosa
Pebble Beach chairperson Sandra Button will officiate at the Noosa event.
Picture: KIMBALL STUDIOS
A new signature event - Noosa Concours D’Elegance - will deliver a display of exceptional automobiles to Noosa’s famed Hastings Street, combine the exhibition with an array of music and events to celebrate all the street has to offer, and the local community is firmly in its focus. Modelled along similar lines to the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance, which has been running for more than 70 years in California, Noosa’s event will host its chairperson Sandra Button who will officiate, bringing with her a high level of interest from enthusiasts, collectors, judges and visitors. Running from 14-16 July, the event will see a curation of prestigious and historic cars line Hastings Street, with the area closed to all traffic on Saturday 15 July. Continued page 8
Glossy hope dim By Margie Maccoll
12497020-DL22-21
Despite a 76,000 signature petition, countless letters to politicians and years of campaigning to protect a wallum habitat identified as a priority feed area for endangered Glossy Black Cockatoos, BlueCare this week informed Sunrise Beach residents they would begin clearing the site for development on Monday 5 June World Environment Day. Clinging to hope of a last-minute reprieve young activist Spencer Hitchen and his mum Maxine, who with Glossy Team Sunrise members have led the community campaign, have called on government ministers to intervene. “Minister Plibersek and Minister Linard, we are asking you to reassess this development that will impact our protected areas and the irreplaceable species that live in this wallum ecosystem. This is an endangered ecosystem that is critical habitat for the Glossies and many other threatened species. “The wallum woodland acts as a buffer to the wallum heathland protecting it from run off and pollutants. Threatened species including the vulnerable Eastern Ground Parrot, vul-
nerable Wallum Sedge Frog and the vulnerable Swamp Yabby live in the wallum heathland at the back of Grasstree Court,“ they said. BlueCare said it had approval from Noosa Council and State and Commonwealth governments to start construction of a retirement village, comprised of 122 independent living retirement homes on the site at Lot 9, Grasstree Court. “This forms part of the Sunrise Beach Village by BlueCare precinct, combining aged care (currently under construction on Lot 6 on the opposite side of the road) and retirement living, providing much needed accommodation for the growing local population,“ Uniting Care property project lead Michael Jorgensen told residents. “Preparations to make the retirement village site suitable for construction will include removal of vegetation not identified for retention in the approved Ecological Management Plan. Salvaged grass trees, habitat logs, live soil and mulch will also be transported to the nearby rehabilitation site.“ Noosa retired barrister Barry Cotterell has slammed Noosa Council staff for “waving
through” an offset approval for the BlueCare development without a public vote by councillors, paving the way for its progress. Mr Cotterell said council staff used their delegated authority in May to approve the offset site, a nearby former dump, as “suitable” despite what he says is significant contrary evidence. “The offset deal was approved as a “minor change” but without it the development could not proceed,“ he said. Mr Cotterell said the evidence shows that in five years the seedlings would still only be two metres tall and many years away from being a possible food source for the endangered Glossy Black cockatoos that will be deprived of the trees they currently live off. “When the bulldozers flatten their habitat on Lot 9 at Sunrise Beach, these birds can’t eat from the promise of a future tree that has not yet been planted” he said. The so-called ’offset site’ is a degraded former dump which Mr Cotterell said it was agreed needs to be capped to contain unknown contaminants.
He said the evidence provided does not look at the impact of the trees being planted above the capping with their roots possibly breaching the cap, impacting on the nutrients for the birds and also threatening contamination of Burgess Creek down to the ocean. Mr Cotterell said the Development Approval (DA) has always required BlueCare to “re-establish the habitat” of the Glossy Black Cockatoos it proposed to destroy at the development site (Lot 9) at a suitable offset site. “To give the tick to this highly questionable old dump site and an offset of seedlings that are many years from being a potential food source makes a mockery of the term ‘offset’.” He said BlueCare was proposing to remove all of the feed trees from Lot 9 except for four isolated trees which locals say clearly did not constitute “a habitat”. Noosa Council said a recent minor change to one of the operational works approvals was approved under delegation by council officers to incorporate remediation works to the landfill cap and an updated offset methodology for this area. Continued page 4