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Letter to The Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, Sat 19 Sept 2009
RE: Great Keppel Island, Tower & Tourism.
RE: Great Keppel Island, Tower & Tourism.
I
have just returned from visiting family & friends at Airlie Beach
& the Whitsundays and have reviewed the local paper articles about
Tower’s plans for our Great Keppel Island with considerable
dismay.
We are [or more accurately were] blessed with some of the most stunning coastline & beaches anywhere in the world. Beautiful natural features, headlands, forests, inlets, beaches and seascapes that we all express our love for and appreciation of. I am old enough to be able to remember just how beautiful so much of this coastline WAS especially in the Whitsundays, around the northern & southern ends of Bribie Island, the coastal towns near Bargara/Bundaberg and of course the Hervey Bay coast. Seeing how these areas have developed is one of the great reasons why the Capricorn Coast area has maintained its attraction for me.
The rampart visual vandalism that passes for coastal development in Queensland unfortunately is slowly but surely wrecking the beauty of our CQ patch as well. …… I suppose that is what passes for progress!! We literally love our natural beauty to death. And I mean death – there is nothing natural left to be beautiful by the time we have ‘developed’ it!
One just needs to see what has happened to Airlie Beach, Cannonvale, Shute Harbour and Hamilton Island. “Shingley Beach” at Airlie, once one of the real accessible treasures of that coast now is all but completely destroyed by a huge Marina complex with associated units. The once forested hills behind Airlie are occupied by boxy, garish, medium-rise & high-rise units & hotels overlooked by scarred hillside that has been prepared for more residential development. Airlie inlet that used to be an almost pristine green lined mangrove littoral sea-life nursery that complimented the more rugged parts of the coastal seascape is now completely disappearing under the massive re-sculpturing & development that is acclaimed as the “Port of Airlie” development.
Hamilton Island, long ago destroyed the beauty of the Whitsunday islands with its multiple architectural disasters that can be seen from virtually every vantage point in the area. Of course, Hamilton Island has, for a long time, also added the lovely ambience of a jet capable airport to “compliment” the natural features of the islands.
What is my point?
All of this is what we all have to look forward to with the Tower/GKI plan. Sure, jobs will be generated, tourist numbers will increase, the hype will be amazing and the usual thoughtless short-sighted gradual but irrevocable/irreversible destruction of our Capricorn Coast seascapes & natural beauty will be secured …… the thing that we all love most will be lost forever. Let’s throw in another coal-loading port for good measure.
• As long as the majority of people are OK with that, I suppose we just have to accept this “progress”. But really, it only takes a bit more thoughtfulness to preserve natural beauty but I expect that pinks, purples & whites with bright angular roof & balcony lines projecting into every natural feature will be the order of the day.
• Also, as an aside, my recent & ongoing personal experiences with Tower as a company make me very wary of their motivations, financial management models and their general modus operandi.
Dr Kim Bulwinkel Rockhampton.
We are [or more accurately were] blessed with some of the most stunning coastline & beaches anywhere in the world. Beautiful natural features, headlands, forests, inlets, beaches and seascapes that we all express our love for and appreciation of. I am old enough to be able to remember just how beautiful so much of this coastline WAS especially in the Whitsundays, around the northern & southern ends of Bribie Island, the coastal towns near Bargara/Bundaberg and of course the Hervey Bay coast. Seeing how these areas have developed is one of the great reasons why the Capricorn Coast area has maintained its attraction for me.
The rampart visual vandalism that passes for coastal development in Queensland unfortunately is slowly but surely wrecking the beauty of our CQ patch as well. …… I suppose that is what passes for progress!! We literally love our natural beauty to death. And I mean death – there is nothing natural left to be beautiful by the time we have ‘developed’ it!
One just needs to see what has happened to Airlie Beach, Cannonvale, Shute Harbour and Hamilton Island. “Shingley Beach” at Airlie, once one of the real accessible treasures of that coast now is all but completely destroyed by a huge Marina complex with associated units. The once forested hills behind Airlie are occupied by boxy, garish, medium-rise & high-rise units & hotels overlooked by scarred hillside that has been prepared for more residential development. Airlie inlet that used to be an almost pristine green lined mangrove littoral sea-life nursery that complimented the more rugged parts of the coastal seascape is now completely disappearing under the massive re-sculpturing & development that is acclaimed as the “Port of Airlie” development.
Hamilton Island, long ago destroyed the beauty of the Whitsunday islands with its multiple architectural disasters that can be seen from virtually every vantage point in the area. Of course, Hamilton Island has, for a long time, also added the lovely ambience of a jet capable airport to “compliment” the natural features of the islands.
What is my point?
All of this is what we all have to look forward to with the Tower/GKI plan. Sure, jobs will be generated, tourist numbers will increase, the hype will be amazing and the usual thoughtless short-sighted gradual but irrevocable/irreversible destruction of our Capricorn Coast seascapes & natural beauty will be secured …… the thing that we all love most will be lost forever. Let’s throw in another coal-loading port for good measure.
• As long as the majority of people are OK with that, I suppose we just have to accept this “progress”. But really, it only takes a bit more thoughtfulness to preserve natural beauty but I expect that pinks, purples & whites with bright angular roof & balcony lines projecting into every natural feature will be the order of the day.
• Also, as an aside, my recent & ongoing personal experiences with Tower as a company make me very wary of their motivations, financial management models and their general modus operandi.
Dr Kim Bulwinkel Rockhampton.