The Tweed is about to be swamped by a development tsunami with impending large-scale residential and commercial projects moving ahead while other concept plans, such as the massive Kings Forest southwest of Kingscliff and The Rise at Terranora,  are to be considered by council next Tuesday before the state government has the final say. That of course doesn’t mean the local community, anxious about the impact of these developments, should not be heard – and it’s up to councillors to reflect that.
For a start, one thing they should seriously consider opposing is the proposed golf course for Kings Forest (even the name suggests a wooded environment), which covers a big swag of the ‘greenfields’ site. It should be the first item on the developer’s wish list to go, as it is totally inappropriate for the time and conditions we live in.
We’ve got to get real. The mantra from developers and their puppet councillors will be that for the estate to be viable, it needs this golf course, that it will create jobs, jobs and more jobs. Well, that’s bunkum. Local golf clubs are suffering already from the economic decline and complain about lack of membership, etc, while others like the one at Sleepy Hollow went belly up some years ago, so a new one can’t possibly be sustainable.
It smacks too much of the Gold Coast of the 80s and 90s, where just about every major estate was marketed and sold with a golf course. But the Tweed just doesn’t need it. The course will be dressed up as part of the ‘passive open space’ of the development, but it’s only for use by a select minority, and it will impact heavily on surrounding habitat and water courses, as any nutrients and water used to maintain the greens will leach into the water table. And like the Gold Coast, it’s mostly an artificial environment plastered over a natural one, now is that really smart?
A much more sensible use would be turning the area into a world-class koala park with hundreds of koala feed and habitat trees planted. It’s not a far stretch that something like that could become an attraction in itself and a selling point for proponents.
Another part of the proposed estate, known as the ‘Cudgen paddock’, is mostly wallum heath plain on the estate’s eastern portion and it’s been suggested by local ecologists it should be set aside as nature reserve, as the minimum area required for heathland survival. The area’s biodiversity could be boosted and residents could enjoy much more nature-based activities and walks and a cleaner environment which attracted them to the Tweed in the first place. There are enough golf estates on the Gold Coast to cater for a sectional market of golf lovers who want to live in or around their playground.
Funny how in our neighbouring shire, Oceans Shores (another big residential subdivision dreamed up in the 70s) was initially targeted at retirees and golf lovers but it wasn’t too long before that market died out and young families began to buy up or rent and move in – and they didn’t move there for the golf course, but to be part of this beautiful and largely unspoilt environment on the Northern Rivers. The golf course there is the bane of many residents who have to put up with big smouldering burnoffs from the maintenance involved.
At the last election almost every councillor not already aligned with green (read sustainable and appropriate) principles and policies draped themselves, like wolves in sheep’s clothing, in green-tinged cloth, promising to listen to the community in regard to the environment and developments affecting them.
Well here’s another test for them with these big projects, will we see a repeat of past (mal) practices in development too large scale or too inappropriate for the future? The whole shire will suffer the consequences if the environment is made a secondary consideration rather than the foremost one. The stress on water quality  in our river and waterways, native wildlife, social infrastructure: all this has to be seriously taken into account. Huge developments like these will impact on our shire, don’t let them destroy it.