The already-fierce debate over how much – if any – commercial development should be allowed in our national parks is ramping up yet further.
The latest flashpoint is at Queensland’s Great Sandy National Park where the Queensland Government is finalising plans for the construction of 10 luxury cabins – complete with flushing toilets – in sensitive forest overlooking a perched lake in the Cooloola area.
The Brisbane Times reports that the bid to swap tents for tiny houses in the park follows high-level talks about the need for Queensland to provide tourists with something new.
The 10 cabins and dining area have been proposed for a hill with vine and blackbutt forest behind Poona Lake, on a 30-year lease.
The Government has engaged with private company CABN to provide more accommodation in the area to support hikers and boost other tourism ventures near Rainbow Beach, south of K’gari (Fraser Island).
The Brisbane Times reports that CABN’s highest-priced accommodation in South Australia and Victoria rents for $795 a night in peak times. A company spokesman has said the design and operations had yet to be finalised.
“We have been working tirelessly with all stakeholders to deliver something that is focussed on the unique relationship this land has with the traditional owners, the Kabi Kabi people,” the CABN spokesman told the Brisbane Times. “The project will also bring sustainable long-term employment and economic benefit to the region.”
However, the move has left conservation groups horrified, and is said to have privately angered senior Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service officers.
Lake Poona in Great Sandy National Park, with one of the sites considered for luxury cabins. PIC: National Parks Association of Queensland / Brisbane Times
Conservationists Mike and Lindy West believe the development proposal is misguided.
“When you are in there you can see all this completely virgin forest. It is mostly vine forest, and it is all untouched … it was never logged or even burned,” they told the Brisbane times. “People coming here will look up and see this eyesore along the top of the hill.”
And members of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service have reportedly privately questioned how effluent would be managed in the perched lake catchment, the extent of clearing in such a sensitive area, and the impact on wildlife.
A spokesman for Minister for Tourism, Innovation and Sport, Stirling Hinchliffe. said premium eco-tourism experiences had been identified by the Tourism Industry Reference Panel ‘as critical to the recovery of Queensland’s visitor economy’.
“The proposed site has the backing of independent ecologists, groundwater experts and Traditional Owners,” the minister’s spokesman said.
A spokesman for the Department of Environment and Science confirmed to the Brisbane Times that CABN was the ‘preferred tenderer to deliver eco-friendly, off-grid, nature-based accommodation’.
But the spokesman insisted the proposed site – which is already marked out near Poona Lake – had yet to be approved.
“CABN is currently finalising designs and is required to seek necessary State environmental and development approvals,” he said.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not in favour of full blown developments in rainforests or any area of significance. However, I don’t believe in banning any developments for the sake of being an environmentalist. Everyone lives somewhere and that area was once pristine. Everybody lives in a catchment area of a river. People chop down trees and disturb soil, fertilise their land to get their own piece of paradise. So before everyone throws stones at any development they need to look at themselves. So I’ll leave it to the experts to decide if the development should go ahead, that’s what we pay them to do.
But we also need to stop somewhere. And that somewhere for me is, for instance, any remaining virgin areas, so the very few ones that so far have never been disturbed. That’s an incredibly unique and ever more precious commodity these days – and very special to only a few places in the world these days. Australia should be proud of that heritage and not repeat the mistakes other countries have made. Everything is virgin only once!
People with luxury RV’s visit National Parks, what’s wrong with providing luxury accommodation for those that don’t own a luxurious RV?
natural parks are just it NATURAL
one thing is camp grounds, were you are self contain .
you go enjoy it and go without no trust of you never been there
What happened to national parks being for the protection of the wild life and environment
looks like money talks these days not preservation of the sites
Opening line “support hikers”. At over $700/night dont think so. Yet another pristine site being abused for the privileged few.