By Margaret Maccoll
The Noosa Wallum Festival held over the weekend was hailed a great success.
Presented by Noosa Integrated Catchment Association (NICA) and funded by Noosa Council, the festival brought together a range of guest speakers on topics affecting the wallum country or ecosystem of coastal south-east Queensland.
Organised by a working committee led by Stephanie Haslam, the festival covered a range of topics from geology and research to art and landscape architecture.
On Sunday, Vivien Griffin spoke about a 40-year-fight from 1961 to 2001 by environmentalists against developments to obtain and conserve the 3000 hectares of wallum that make up the Noosa National Park.
In 1962 it was only 835 acres of land-locked park, she said.
In 1986 Dr Arthur Harold, a medical doctor and active conservationist, proposed a permanent continuous green belt from Noosa National Park to Peregian Environment Park at Coolum.
“That was eventually achieved, but we should never take that for granted,” Vivien said.
Development proposals fought off over the four decades included ones for a motorway through the middle of the national park, a residential and retail development on Marcus high dunes and a space park.
The Peregian Space Park proposal, nicknamed The Big Rocket, included a 100-acre theme park, with life size shuttle, restaurants, residences and shops over a 420-acre property.
Vivien said there were 1400 objections to the proposal and protest marches in the streets over what became known as the battle for emu swamp.
“Righteousness prevailed, and government agreed to buy the land and put it into permanent protection in 1993,” she said.
Stephanie said the talks from the festival would be put together in a book.
