The ushering in of a New Year should be coupled with feelings of hope, joyful anticipation and renewed energy . Unfortunately, world events have put more than a damper on all of the above.
Devastating fires, floods, the proliferation of so much hate via social media and all media outlets, the evil attitudes towards immigrants and refugees and the emergence of the Trump era, leaves one already exhausted and bewildered.
When I see our Opposition leader agreeing with so many of Trump’s policies, coupled with his nuclear agenda, I’m gripped with a very real sense of fear and despair. This feeling is not for myself, but for our children and future generations.
Despite all the above, maybe because of all the above, I was drawn to the picture of baby turtles struggling down to the water in a previous issue of Noosa Today. I rang Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to find out what, if any, restrictions are in place to protect turtle nests and aid their safe journey to the water. There are no restrictions as such on beach vehicles, just a list of requirements asking drivers to take care and be aware of turtle activity between November and April.
An underfunded small group of Rangers do what they can, plus a dedicated group of volunteers. QPWS rangers do have the authority to stop vehicles having access to the beach but this rarely, if ever, happens. The turtles do their best to survive while vehicles create huge furrows for them to negotiate and cause who knows what kind of damage to the dunes, where they still continue to drive.
It beggars belief that 4WDs are permitted on Teewah sands during turtle season, which brings me to another point.
Going back to 18 June, 2022, Noosa Today printed an article entitled, World Heritage for Cooloola?. It was a lengthy but interesting dissertation on the history of World Heritage nomination for K’Gari and the Cooloola and Great Sandy National Park. Going back to 1992, “ The Federal Government again revised the nomination without consultation, and when the nomination was considered by the World Heritage Committee in December 1992, only Fraser Island was inscribed”.
The “…inclusion of Cooloola would be reconsidered ‘at another time’”. The article quoted Michael Gloster as saying, “The historic opportunity facing the Noosa Community is to build on the solid foundation created a decade ago by the Feds, the State, Noosa Council, Tourism Noosa and NPA, and take the Cooloola World Heritage re- nomination process to the next level”.
Mr Gloster went on to say, “ The Cooloola World Heritage re-nomination process is going to provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for contemporary Noosa to learn more about what it values, the type of future it is willing to work for.”
Since all that very worthy rhetoric, we have heard nothing. In the light of the present LNP State Government’s attitude to the environment, perhaps it is time to re-visit this re-nomination in the hope that eventually a World Heritage listing for Cooloola may help to protect this precious area. A World Heritage listing may even inspire a reduction in permits being granted to vehicles accessing this area. Nothing seems to work now and no one takes responsibility for the desecration of the beaches and dunes. It is a national disgrace.
One of my great hopes for 2025, is that all environmental groups in our area can work together. We need to support and encourage each other and be transparent and open about what we are doing. If we cannot all pull together in the current environment, we may as well give up right now.
I quote from a friend, “ A critical aspect of need is to work out how to re-align community advocacy with community values and empirically evident common needs rather than have the most prominent advocacies so routinely act toward aligning community values with corporate agendas that have subsumed them.
One imperative is to seek to find and develop common ground between genuine grass roots actions rather than having them isolated as myriad issues and actions, and/or combative upon essentially peripheral ideological conflicts. The divide between big ( corporate) and small (community) is more critical than the one between ‘left’ and ‘right’”.
I’d like to draw people’s attention to the Department of Environment and Science’s recent publication entitled, Destination 2045: Queensland’s Tourism Future discussion paper.
There is a community survey for people to express their opinions.I strongly recommend doing the survey.
To quote Wordsworth:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and Spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon;”
Despite this lament, we must cling onto hope, for without hope there is only heartache.
Kathy Sweet
Tewantin
