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rural residential developments in an environmentally fragile area (Myola Valley, Kuranda) under the old, 2004- and now superseded planning scheme.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.

Come along to the Friends of the Earth FNQ meeting for January
Informal dining atmosphere - think coffee, pizza and politics.

Lift from Cairns around 4:30pm.
Lift back after the meeting.
call 0403214422

We have this monthly OPEN meeting to discuss HOW the different campaigns and affiliates might support each other. How do we leverage and sync operations and resources so that we get SYNERGY! How do we COOPERATE!!

Best wishes for this end of the year season!
We wish you a restful and safe holiday and hope to see you involved in the new year. We know that having people active and participating is what gets campaign outcomes. Please see our newsletter below for many ways to get involved.

We hope that, in 2017 we'll meet you face to face in the plazas and markets. 

For a safe, healthy and ecological North Queensland.

Yours in peace,
Jonathan Glue

Your donation will help FoE FNQ grow to support all our campaigns in Far North Queensland. We campaign to get things done about the threats to the long term survival of critically endangered animals.

Southern Cassowaries: loss of habitat, attacks from roaming dogs, road vehicles.

Kuranda Tree Frog: threatened urban development of their habitat

Spectacled Flying Fox: paralysis ticks, orphaned babies, removal of nursery trees.

...and more to come.

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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 Margie 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

WILDLIFE RESCUE: Paralysis Tick Season for Flying Foxes

October to December is Paralysis ticks season. The ticks kill 100's of Spectacled Flying Foxes every year.

Please DONATE to purchase much-needed anti-toxin and to help care for the babies while the parents recover.

Flying Fox Baby Season Alert

From September to January during the birthing seaon sometimes Flying Fox babies can be found on the ground or hanging low in or near their colonies for differnt reasons!