Toolbox for Sustainable Development

What is sustainable development?

Perhaps the most complete definition is development that meets the needs of the current generation without degrading the ecological inheritance of future generations.

Is this what we are seeing in our region?

Over the last few decades, there has been an onslaught on the recovering rainforest and bush in Kuranda and the wider region. Cassowaries and other endangered wildlife have been killed by loss of habitat, traffic, feral animals and domestic cats and dogs. Just recently, large numbers of paperbarks have been cut down in the centre of Mareeba to evict flying foxes.

As habitats shrink, the clashes between humans and wildlife will increase unless a more collaborative and sustainable planning approach is taken. With this vision in mind, the Kuranda Region Planning Group (KRPG) has been set up. See www.kurandaregion.org for further information. This is a network of local residents, environmental groups and wildlife experts that aim to work with government at all levels. FoE FNQ is a member of this network.

ACTION: Support KRPG's Wet Tropics World Heritage Vital Corridor Buy Back Scheme email [email protected] for further information.

Opposing environmentally destructive development

We have various options:

Engaging with the official governmental planning system at local, State or Federal level

We can put in submissions to Mareeba Shire Council about potentially environmentally destructive developments that conflict with the Mareeba Shire Planning Scheme 2016 For a list of current development applications, see https://msc.qld.gov.au/building-planning/development-applications/

If the development is still approved, we can then appeal in the Planning and Environment Court against the approval – but only if we were submitters. The Environmental Defenders' Office (EDO) offers legal advice, fact sheets and community handbooks prepared by legal experts. However court cases can be lengthy and expensive. Mediation is another option to achieve a better outcome.

Very large developments are assessed by all three layers of government – and this is the case for the mega resort KUR-World.

ACTION: Write a submission to the Coordinator General about KUR-World. Email [email protected] to find out more.

Nonviolent direct action

In the 50^th year after Martin Luther King was killed, this remains one of the most powerful tools we have. The Daintree Blockade in the 1980s was a local example of people risking their lives to protect the rainforest. Though it failed to stop the Bloomfield track being bulldozed through, it helped to save the Daintree and kick started the listing of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. This inspiring local history has been chronicled in the new book The Daintree Blockade: the battle for Australia's Tropical Rainforests by Bill Wilkie.

It is well worth the read with the added bonus of name spotting local eco-heroes who still live in the area. As Bob Brown said ' The sheer energy and commitment of those campaigners on the ground- that was the core to saving the Daintree itself' As we battle mega resorts and huge subdivisions and find out how weak and woolly the planning law is in Queensland, this may be what it takes to save the Kuranda region.

Protesters buried in the path of bulldozers in efforts to stop the Daintree road.

Photo by Cliff Frith.

Bryan Law and others up to his chest in mud blocking the Daintree Road.

Our Kuranda property was recently sprayed with the herbicide Roundup by Council workers without our authorisation. Our property adjoins Jumrum Creek which ultimately flows to the Great Barrier Reef via the Barron River. Due to the ecological sensitivity of our property and region, we initiated a formal complaint through the Queensland Ombudsman. Mareeba Shire Council’s actions and subsequent dismissive response reveals a common belief that Roundup is innocuous. While this complacency has been fostered through decades of aggressive marketing by agrochemical company Monsanto, there is mounting research suggesting Roundup is toxic not only to the environment, but to human health.

In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified Roundup’s declared principle ingredient ‘glyphosate’ as "probably carcinogenic to humans"[1]. The European Chemicals Agency has classified it “a substance causing serious eye damage and being toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects"[2]. After bitter division in 2017 the European Union approved a limited 5-year licence for glyphosate, with France declaring a ban within 3 years. Currently, more than 700 US farmers, landscapers & gardeners are involved in a lawsuit against Monsanto claiming that exposure to glyphosate caused their cancers.[3]

Mareeba Council Fails Kuranda Community Again

At the July 2017 council meeting, it took just nine minutes for council to pass more than four motions, two of which allowed assessment of high density, rural residential developments in an environmentally fragile area (Myola Valley, Kuranda) under the old, 2004- and now superseded planning scheme.

 The high density. rural residential development applications are for the Kuranda vets' land (subdivision into approximately 48 blocks of around 2 acres in size) and the Barnwell road property (site of the ambitious and possibly fictional KUR-World project) of 176 blocks also of around 2 acres each.

These subdivisions would not be deemed appropriate according to the Mareeba Shire Council 2016 plan, the FNQ2031 plan and the State Planning mapping (Matters of Environmental significance). Hence this extraordinary tactic of trying to have the developments assessed under the old plan, which was rejected a decade ago by the Kuranda community and eventually by the State Government.

In previous articles we mentioned the dangers associated with conventional agriculture as bores have turned up with too high levels of arsenic in Koah possibly due to the use of arsenic during tobacco farming times. Conventional farming uses many dangerous chemicals. Some insecticides, for example the much used Methomyl and Chlorpyrifos are anti-cholinesterases(nerve poisons) just like Sarin. In fact it was only after some potent insecticides were developed that armies also saw their usefulness in chemical warfare.

It follows that keeping conventional agriculture as far away as possible from environmental values and populated areas is a safe precaution.

FOE Questions the Subdividing of KOAH until Issues of Water are Resolved

see Cairns Post Article Nov 19 2016

Mareeba Shire Council continues to subdivide Koah region without solving water issues. Mareeba Shire Council is giving different messages regarding its responsibilities regarding safe drinkable water.

Planner Brian Millard wrote to Kuranda Region Planning Group that

“In terms of planning requirements for subdivisions outside of a reticulated water supply network, the developer must show an adequate water supply.”

He suggests it’s up to the owners to test and treat their own water. But this appears to contradict other advice and regulations attached to subdivisions.

It’s true that Council is not directly responsible for bore water quality. However when the Planning Department of the MSC makes a subdivision subject to potable water (“each lot must be provided with potable water”) this surely means that the water is drinkable and not just available. 

Foe FNQ is assuming that the definition of “potable” is drinkable according to particular Standards. Who's responsibility is it?

http://www.kurandapaper.com/Issue282/Page11.htm

Chain Reaction is the journal for Friends of the Earth Australia.

The August 2016 edition had the following two articles written in the Far North by FoE FNQ president John Glue and Margaret Pestorius.

Will militarism block the climate change movement?

At the start of the election campaign Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt visited Cairns to re-announce $50 million in new projects to boost water quality, including efforts to keep sediment, fertilisers and pesticides off the Great Barrier Reef. This re-announcement was partly to allay concerns over research showing 93% of the Reef had been bleached and dire predictions that the Reef will be terminal in as little as 5 to 20 years.

Read More