Maleny Voice

In mid June 2008 the final section of pre-existing bamboo vegetation was cleared from the bank of Obi Obi Creek. This resulted in the controversial supermarket being plainly visible to the town for the first time.

Trees planted close to the creek side of the building have grown well over the past two years and we look forward to the time when the entire site has a creek-side canopy of trees once more.

Read the full story and see photos here.

The Mt Evelyn Residents Against Woolworths action group are celebrating the stopping of another clone supermarket invading their town. They have sent us a heart-warming message which you can read. Congratulations from the people of Maleny!

THIS week marks the fourth anniversary of one of Maleny’s darkest days, when the notorious Deen Brothers demolition firm ravaged the Obi Obi creekside next to the pub to prepare for a Woolworths supermarket.

Soon after dawn on Wednesday April 14, 2004, several 19-tonne excavators and a bulldozer began smashing down all vegetation on 2-4 Bunya Street. A contingent of 70 Queensland police from the Tactical Crime Squad and a hastily erected site fence blocked protesters’ access. A steadily growing crowd of nearly 400 watched in horror as the Deen Brothers (Belle Vue Hotel, Cloudland Ballroom) flattened native trees, including Bunya and Karri pines, with swinging excavator buckets, bulldozer blade and chainsaws.

Despite promises by Woolworths property manager Peter Thomas at a public meeting that no native trees would be affected, the site was mostly cleared before protesters managed to stop the clearing at 9.20am. Urgent calls to the Department of Natural Resources raised doubt whether the company had a permit to clear on riverine land, which carries a penalty of $125,000.

About 30 protesters entered the site by wading the Obi Obi. They linked arms around a forked bunya pine, a silky oak and a persimmon tree as the excavators moved closer. Others climbed trees and were removed by police. Seven were arrested. Police dropped the charges, most for allegedly obstructing police and resisting arrest, after the protesters attended court in Maroochydore four times.

The forked bunya pine, the last in Bunya Street, was saved by Daniel Jones, 28, a local landscape gardener, who climbed the tree and lived in it, with the help of locals, for 60 days. Maleny’s tree-sitter drew international support for Maleny’s plight.

The State Government challenged the riverine tree-clearing in the Planning and Environment Court but developer Cornerstone found loopholes in the State Water Act 2000 and won the court case. The legislation has since been tightened, but the new Act is not retrospective.

Trashing of the Obi Obi site on April 14, 2004, followed about three years’ community opposition to a supermarket on the known platypus habitat and important water catchment. The fight intensified over the next 15 months until possibly an even blacker day, July 14, 2005, when at least 200 Queensland police oversaw the start of supermarket construction work on the site.

The rest is history. The picturesque and environmentally important entrance to Maleny is now blighted by an ugly concrete box-like structure - a far cry from the small, boutique-style supermarket “in keeping with Maleny’s village character” promised by Woolworths executives.

The fight continues, with a large number of Maleny residents refusing to shop at Woolworths in Maleny, or anywhere else. Woolworths has more than 700 supermarkets in Australia and the turnover for all but one is recorded monthly in company documents. The glaring omission is Woolworths Maleny, suggesting that residents’ “I Won’t Shop There” campaign is having an effect.

Newly elected Sunshine Coast Regional Council Mayor Bob Abbot has indicated that the new Council will revisit the controversial decision made last November by the Caloundra City Council early on in the new Council's business. Hopefully common sense will prevail and the hard work and detailed planning undertaken by Council staff will finally be fully considered by Councillors.

This news has been welcomed by Obi Obi Parklands supporters, and the news may even come as a relief for some of the golf course supporters who are slowly beginning to realise that they may have bitten off far more than they can chew - there is no magic bullet funding solution for all the sport and recreation infrastructure, there is no bucket of funding for master planning even, and there is certainly no magic bucket of funding for roadworks (let alone a new bridge), underground power, phone, water, stormwater runnoff management, former sewerage dispersal land decontamination etc etc etc...

How about it MALPAN, Maleny Golf Club, Maleny Sport & Rec Club: Actually write to Council and ask them how much money is available for master planning. Ask Council how much money will be allocated ove the next 5 years for infrasctructure improvements for the Maleny Community Precinct land for sports and recreational facilities. You will be very very disapointed with the response you will get.

Following on from years of deliberations and public consultations costing many hundreds of thousands of dollars, Caloundra City Council staff developed their 'best land use' concept plan for the Maleny Community Precinct land which went before the Council meeting this morning.

The Obi Obi Parklands team members were satisfied with this compromise plan, which included many worthy features from the parklands concept plan submitted to Council. Here you can see a photograph of the compromise plan which would have been accepted by most in the Maleny community: Council-Staff-Plan.jpg (1.4Mb).

Lo-and-behold the surprise of many when Deputy Mayor Don Smith produced his own hastily and arbitrarily amended precinct plan WITHOUT THE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE OTHER COUNCILLORS. The amended plan, which surprise - surprise included provision for an 18 hole golf course was hastily flicked through by Councillors before being voted on a mere 3 hours after they laid eyes on it for the first time.

Only 5 of the Councillors spoke against the revised Precinct plan, many with passion about due process being sabotaged and sufficient time for scrutiny yet again being brushed aside. Councillors Dick Newman, Danny O'Kearney, Andrew Champion, Anna Grosskreutz and Gordon Wallace deserve a great vote of thanks by the people of Maleny.

One of the Obi Obi Parklands team, Steven Lang, has posted a video on YouTube where he talks about the Council meeting of 22 November. Watch the video here.

Councillor Smith admitted that he had drawn it up over the weekend, and paid for private consultants to produce the map. Here you can see a photograph of the adopted plan prepared by Councillor Smith. See the full sized map image here: Adopted-Concept-Plan-L.jpg (1.2Mb).

Compare this map with the council staff preferred concept plan and you can see straight away that the agenda is for an 18 hole golf course at the expense of all other community sporting groups, and at the expense of the environment. In the western part of the property the proposed parklands areas are physically disconnected from the Obi Obi Creek riparian area. Any conservationist will quickly tell you that linkages are vital for migration of small species such as frogs, snakes, small mammals and lizards. In addition to removing wildlife corridor linkages, many sections of the Obi Obi Creek riparian land have been slashed back to token widths (most likely to fit in fairways).

Councillor Smith's plan was created by scanning the council staff preferred concept plan and hastily tinkering with the sizes of various areas in some graphics program. Considerations such as site constraints, drainage, and linkages of green areas have been ignored. Sufficient significant changes were made to justify added feasibility checking and scrutiny before Councillors took the vote. This scrutiny was not undertaken. Vey unprofessional of Councillor Smith, and very dismissive of all the hard work undertaken by Council professional staff.

Councillors did not have time to thoroughly go through the document, ask Council staff appropriate questions, seek required clarification and make an informed decision. Once again the almost amateurish way some Councillors undertake their public duties was highlighted. Once again how little they regard the opinions of the public who make up their local government authority became evident. Roll on the amalgamation. Hopefully the new Sunshine Coast Council will have elected representatives with more common sense and who display proper due diligence to their elected responsibilities.

The written feedback process (involving 2,480 residents), the results of which Council officers had so carefully analysed, was largely ignored. No doubt the reasons for this were: 55% voted in favour of Obi Obi Parklands (although this alternative land use was omitted from the official Council forms); 73% said they did not want an 18 hole golf course. Only 24% said they did...

Questions immediately arise:
1. How is the golf course going to be constructed whilst allowing adequate room for all the sporting fields promised? - There is a finite amount of suitable flattish land.
2. How will massive earthworks be avoided? Earthworks to direct water, cope with the springs all over the site, steep slope reduction etc must be undertaken if a viable golf course is to be constructed.
3. How is the golf course going to be funded? By the rate payers? - Hopefully not as it will cost at least $9 million.
4. When the master planning for the precinct area is undertaken, full site analysis will be required. Should the golf course be found to be unfeasible due to site constraints, what then?
5. What has happened to a democratic process where the Councillors are there to represent the community?
6. Why is Councillor Smith so passionately determined to see a golf course in Maleny? He does not live here and is not the Division One Councillor. Ample other golf courses can be found close to where he lives.

Rather than moving this issue towards finalisation, once again Councillor Smith has managed to further prolong the conjecture over the Precinct site, and upset many in our local community. This is a disapointing outcome for all, excepting the die-hard golfing supporters - and even they are now going to struggle to produce the funding to pay for the golf course - if it goes ahead.

Words from Caloundra City Council's own website relating to the Precinct land planning process:

The fall back solution for the precinct land is obvious. Adopt a majority of the good ideas incorporated in the Obi Obi Parklands concept plan - a plan which is achievable, properly funded, and environmentally sound.

Here is a website where you may see the vision for Obi Obi Parklands show casing an alternative view for the site. Along with a series of in-depth maps covering all aspects of the proposal, they have a detailed concept planning document with full financial analysis on how the plan can be achieved.

This plan makes no bones about three quarters of the land being given back to reforestation and rehabilitation with a wonderful series of pathways and walking trails making it fully accessible. The plan is backed by Maleny Green Hills, Lake Baroon Catchment Care Group, and Barung Landcare.

The many people who have put considerable professional expertise into this plan (acknowledged by the Council's own planning staff) are not pushing any particular agenda, and they are not anti-golf. They just wish to see the best use made of this land for the majority of the community, any local golf course built on more appropriate land elsewhere, land set aside for green and eco business use (and thus job creation), and a significant area of land restored for nature.

This plan has some provision for sporting clubs and sports grounds, but the team believes that these activities are best undertaken on more appropriate land elsewhere in the Maleny and Witta district. People have to drive to the beach to surf and swim. People have to drive to Brisbane to see opera and attend live shows. What's wrong with having to drive 20 minutes to have a round of golf?