By Phil Jarratt
A former tour guide from Rainbow Beach has become the first Indigenous stakeholder to go public with concerns about the scope and purpose of the planned commercial Cooloola Great Walk.
Russell Bennet, an emerging elder and local Kabi Kabi spokesman, said: “It’s just not right. They want to take a pristine rainforest and start knocking down trees and letting the sunlight in there. There aren’t any weeds in there now, but once you knock down a few trees, and you’ve got vehicles going in there, they’ll be tracking the weeds in, in no time.”
Mr Bennet told Cooloola Coast Today journalist Donna Jones: “I’m concerned this will set a dangerous precedent and you’ll have private companies developing other National Parks. This is not environmental – it’s about making rich people richer. They’d be better off giving that money to operators to do Indigenous tours and make a few jobs for the locals.”
Noosa Today has been tracking developments in the Cooloola Recreational Area over several articles since the beginning of the year, and this reporter has been told on more than one occasion that, while the Kabi Kabi Traditional Owners Group is working closely with South Australian based CABN corporation on the upmarket glamping proposal – involving the construction and servicing of more than 20 eco-cabins along the walk — there is a significant number of First Nations people in the region, not necessarily Kabi Kabi, opposed to this use of the land. Russell Bennet confirmed that two weeks ago to Cooloola Coast Today.
Meanwhile, Cooloola-based environmental groups are getting increasingly agitated about a perceived information void from the Queensland Government on the Great Walk development, although sources close to the project told Noosa Today that part of the problem was people not understanding the process.
Following last year’s limited community consultation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) report released in August outlined the proposed site uses and cleared the Great Walk project of any further responsibility at federal level, however, Noosa Today understands the project is still very much a work in progress, with site selection subject to state environmental controls.
Noosa MP Sandy Bolton confirmed this in her Noosa 360 newsletter of 10 March:
“Further to previous updates and following discussions between Sandy [Bolton] and [Environment] Minister Scanlon, and also her staff, we have been advised that [while] a document listing sites for cabins/safari tents was sent as part of the EPBC referral process, these were only proposed sites to allow the EPBC to consider the project, who subsequently found that this project is not a controlled action as defined under the EPBC Act … Regardless of the EPBC findings, there are still environmental assessments and processes required at a state level, before finalising the locations of the sites and going before the Minister for final approval. At the time of writing, this final sign off has not occurred.”
But environmental group Keep Cooloola Cool is not buying it.
Spokesman Matthew Noffke told Noosa Today: “Substantial points of evidence confirm that site locations identified in the Site Selection History Report are the final site selections.
“Following high profile media highlighting issues on these sites, particularly at Poona Lake, various authorities are suddenly saying that these sites are not final and are still subject to review.
“However, no material evidence has been provided to support this new claim. As example of this lack of substance: if the mapped site at Poona Lake is not the final selection, precisely where are the alternative sites in contention for this leg of the Great Walk Development Plan?
“If no such alternatives exist, how can the identified Poona Lake site not be the final selection?”
As previously reported in Noosa Today, Poona has become the flashpoint for opposition to the project, both for its position in the Noosa River catchment and its First Nations significance as a birthing site.
Mr Noffke continued: “The process explicitly demonstrates a core function of placing commercial tourism objectives above the protection and preservation of ecological values within our National Parks. Such process is unacceptable to the majority of the Queensland public and should not be progressed via stealth and misrepresentation.”
Mr Noffke was also critical of a lack of transparency relating to the state Department of Tourism’s funding of $1.5 million to the Great Walk in its 2021 budget and a further $700,000 promised in 2022, to which Sandy Bolton responded: “This funding has not been ‘given’ to Noosa, as it is allocated within the department’s budget for the entire project which covers two electorates, Noosa and Gympie, and is managed by them.”
While the saga of the Cooloola Great Walk continues to be played out in Brisbane, Noosa Today understands the two departments involved, Tourism and Environment, have started responding to community concerns with a better flow of information expected in the coming weeks.
The proof will be in the pudding, as they say.
