The Kabi Kabi community last weekend voted decisively in favour of an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) covering the controversial Cooloola Great Walk ecotourism proposal.
Although a cliffhanger had been predicted, Noosa Today understands that after a day of sometimes heated discussion between and within different family groups, the final vote was more than two to one in favour of authorising the ILUA, which allows Kabi Kabi, the Queensland Government and the proponent, commercial operator CABN, to begin the next phase of negotiations, covering construction details of the campsites, possible restricted access areas, a Cultural Heritage management agreement and the shape of potential commercial agreements with the operator.
As foreshadowed in these pages a few weeks ago, a vote for the ILUA is not an automatic green light for this complex and polarising project. Rather, as noted by one of the involved parties, it might be considered “the end of the beginning”.
After last Saturday’s vote in Gympie an embargo was placed on the outcomes, pending a joint statement from all parties, but it was broken almost immediately on social media by an opponent of the Great Walk project. As Noosa Today went to print midweek the joint statement had not yet been released. We will report more fully on the status of Cooloola Great Walk next week.
