Obi Obi Parklands - News

Public Meeting To Be Held - Obi Obi Parklands Update

Green Hills will hold a public meeting in December to provide an update on plans for the Maleny Community Precinct. Supporters of the Obi Obi Parklands Project and all other interested parties are invited to attend. The meeting details are:

Date: Saturday 6th December 2008

Time: 10:00AM to 11:30AM

Place: Maleny RSL Hall

This will be your opportunity to find out the status of the parklands integration into the MCP master planning process and the intended phased approach to tree planting & land restoration. We will be seeking additional support during the meeting to begin tasks such as volunteer co-ordination. Funding has already been obtained for our first tree planting event! Please pass on details of this meeting to everybody.

Revised Obi Obi Parklands Plan Released
 18 November 2008

As you will have seen on the home page of our website, we have released the latest revised concept plan based upon the adopted MCP plan of 22 November 2007 and refined through subsequent Council motions. The map only addresses areas of our direct interest. We are hopeful that we can work together with Sunshine Coast Regional Council and other stakeholder groups to move the master planning process for the entire precinct area forward to a successful outcome.

To provide some idea of the magnitude of the task ahead, here are some figures.

Pathways.

Maleny to Gardners' Falls Pathway (Council Responsibility):
Riverside Centre to MCP Boundary - 450m
MCP Obi Obi Creekside Walk - 4,150m
MCP Boundary to Gardners' Falls Carpark - 135m (Footbridge required)
Total path length, Maleny to Falls will be 4,735m

Obi Lane to Gardners' Falls Connection Pathway (Council Responsibility):
690m - Will require two or three small timber walkways over gullies

Northern Wetlands Pathway (Green Hills Lease Area):
2,500m includes connection to creekside pathway

Parklands Walking Trails (Green Hills Lease Area):
3,985m


Revegetation Areas.

Obi Obi Parklands and Northern Wetlands areas combined (Green Hills Lease):  280,050 sq m (28.1 Ha). This is the area within which Green Hills will have direct responisbility for vegetation restoration work.

N Wetland area: 68,220 sq m (this will be mainly under tree canopy cover with some open wetland areas).

E. Wetland area: 64,760 sq m (this will be mainly open weltand areas with some tree canopy cover).

Riparian areas:
267,140 sq m
(Including some existing adequate coverage, excluding golf course isolated pockets).


Estimate of areas for revegetation work:  611,950 sq m or 61.2Ha.
This does not include the significant planting out of areas within the golf course which will not be required to be kept clear for fairways, greens and tees.

We are concerned that the constraints of the site be taken fully into account:

  • Topography of the precinct land
  • Proximity to Obi Obi Creek - major water supply for Sunshine Coast
  • Previous use of part of site for effluent dispersal
  • Water flow through the site - many springs arise in this area
  • Existing and potential wetland areas
  • Vegetation corridors and buffer zones for riparian areas
  • Subsidence and landslip risk areas
  • Access to proposed infrastructure - roads, water, sewerage, power, phone etc
  • Funding - where will the money come from to pay for infrastructure and improvements to the land

From the Obi Obi Parklands point of view, the priorities for the site are clear:

  • Stabilise erosion and slippage areas on the site
  • Deal with contaminated areas due to effluent dispersal
  • Restore and enhance wetland areas
  • Restore riparian vegetation buffer zones and corridors linking remnant vegetation
  • Provide land to enable Barung Landcare to continue their not-for-profit environmental restoration activities

We also hope that the public pathway from Maple Street (adjacent to Riverside Centre), through the precinct along Obi Obi Creek towards Gardners Falls is afforded a high priority.

Sunshine Coast Regional Council Decides on Precinct
 21 August 2008

The Council met today and decided on the Precinct. Here are four documents with info worth reading:

SCRC Motion Regarding Maleny Community Precinct

Strategy & Planning Recommendations to Council

Pre Discussion Background Information

John Wildman's Impressions of 21 August Council Meeting Re Precinct

Council To Hold MCP Meeting
 18 August 2008

Sunshine Coast Regional Council will hold a meeting in early September involving representatives of Maleny sporting groups, representatives of the Obi Obi Parklands group and council staff. The purpose of this meeting will be to look at outstanding issues, take note of Council resolutions regarding the precinct and move the master planning process forward. Friends of Obi Obi Parklands welcomes this initiative and we look forward to this constructive meeting.

Maleny Community Precinct - Proposal Under Review
 May 2008

Sunshine Coast Regional Council is currently reviewing the 124 hectare Maleny Community Precinct Project in an effort to give the proposal direction and move it forward.

The review is of the documentation which informed the preparation of the Revised Concept Plan for the precinct which was presented to the former Caloundra City Council late last year. The plan, which was later amended by the Caloundra City Council at a subsequent meeting, set out the broad environmental, land use, infrastructure and development intents for the green field site. It includes a golf course, a hinterland park and garden, walking trails, community facilities and limited residential use.

At a recent Sunshine Coast Council’s Strategy and Planning Committee meeting, Chair Vivien Griffin, said the review process would help the new Council gain clarity on the proposal and the history to date. The Committee’s recommendation, which went to the General Committee of Council for consideration when it met on Monday 26 May also addressed the need to hold discussions with Barung Landcare, one of a range of community groups anticipating a move to the proposed precinct. Once the review is completed, the precinct concept plan will then go back out to the community before work starts on an over arching Master Plan and Concept Plan.

Hopefully, the results of the review will be presented to Council and a way forward will become more clear in August.

Barung Landcare Relocation
 26 May 2008

Barung Landcare held a member meeting on Saturday 24th May at the Maleny Community Centre. The relocation plan of Barung to the Maleny Community Precinct was presented to members. Barung will be co-ordinating the restoration efforts on the Obi Obi Parklands site in years to come.

Caloundra City Council Decision Re Community Precinct
 24 November 2007

Caloundra City Council voted on the Maleny Community Precinct late in 2007. The result, which included provision for a golf course, is a disappointing outcome for the parklands team - especially the way in which the Council meeting was manipulated. We were accepting of the compromise plan and all features produced by Council planning staff in the revised concept plan they submitted to the 22 November Council meeting.

We in the Obi Obi Parklands team are not happy with the manner in which this process was hijacked by the Deputy Mayor (Councillor Don Smith) to push through his personally preferred option for the site. A hastilly amended plan was produced, with arbitrary changes to the indicative areas - obvious to all was the creation of sufficient space to accommodate the possibility of an 18 hole Golf Course. In the process, the parkland area was disconnected from Obi Obi Creek.

Any conservationist will quickly point out the importance of wildlife corridors linking together remnant areas of habitat. This plan to deliberately sever proposed wildlife corridors in the planning stage of the Community Precinct flies in the face of established best practice rehabilitation and conservation. The value of the parkland area will be severely diminished if linkages are not reinstated.

Due to the manner in which Councillor Smith produced his amended plan, no proper consideration was possible by Councillors, no staff feasibility assessment was undertaken of his plan, no consideration of public sentiment was entered into, and to top it off, no detailed financial plan on how the golf course can be achieved has been made.

The motion passed by Caloundra City Council has vital importance for residents of the Sunshine Coast, the Hinterland and the Maleny community:

  • It affects the future development of the large, centrally located parcel of land known as the Maleny Community Precinct.
  • The motion claimed to endorse recommendations made by professional staff. It did not, because of seven pages of detailed amendments including a re-drawn map.
  • Details had not been circulated in advance to at least five of ten Councillors present or to the Maleny community.
  • The motion for all practical purposes approved Council’s preferred option for an 18 hole golf course and other amenities.
  • Cleverly it did not say this exactly. Rather, it approved a 9 hole golf course and a significant adjacent area assigned for ‘various sport & recreational uses’.
  • If short par 3 holes are included that additional land can accommodate a further 9 holes making 18 in all, plus some sporting facilities.
  • A motion to postpone any decision pending proper examination of the seven pages of amendments was voted down by the same five Councillors (supported by the Mayor) that eventually passed the amended proposal, despite strong and entirely reasonable protests from the five Councillors who opposed it.
  • Council’s motion effectively ignores the recommendations of its own professional staff. It also ignores comprehensive and explicit feedback from the community through a telephone survey and extensive community engagement that included a plebiscite from which 2,480 forms of feedback were submitted.
  • Both the telephone survey and the feedback forms were slewed towards the desired outcome of the Mayor and some Councillors– an 18 hole golf course.
  • No mention of any alternative proposal was included despite very strong community interest in and support for the Obi Obi Parklands concept.
  • Despite this, results from the telephone survey were 78.7% support for a Hinterland Park and Gardens and only 36.4% support for an 18 hole golf course (even with Council’s golf course bias evident in both surveys)
  • Results from the major feedback process were:
    2,480 submissions received, of which
    93% support recreational trails
    90% support hinterland parks and gardens
    87% support Landcare and eco businesses on the Precinct
    73% do NOT support an 18 hole golf course
    63% do NOT support residential development on the Precinct
    24% support an 18 hole golf course
  • It is self-evident that Council’s actions are not supported by their own professional staff or the wider Maleny community and are therefore totally unacceptable.
  • The motion must be over-turned or withdrawn and a new motion proposed that reflects the views of the wider community, not just the Mayor and his five supporters in Council, (none of whom are local residents).

Here is the map. The full scanned version is available as a PDF from the Council website.

Download this map: Screensized 176kb
Download this map: Large 512kb

The environmental impact of an 18 hole golf course on the precinct land, how the drainage will be affected throughout the site, and the manner in which the golf course will be funded remain our chief concerns. The future of the Maleny Community Precinct remains unresolved, as far as we are concerned.


Parklands team member Steven Lang speaks about this issue.

Miscellaneous News

During 2007, we asked Maleny residents to provide their views on our overall concept plan when seen in conjunction with the Council preferred plan. Our thanks to Parklands team member Michael Cole-King for doing the statistical analysis of the data. Here is a collation of the most often remarked comments (click to see full sized version). Pretty clear what the majority of people we spoke with thought...

Here you may read the personal submission to Council by one of the Obi Obi Parklands team, Steve Swayne (279Kb PDF).

Here are some updated frequently asked questions about the original Parklands concept.

Here is the current A4 full sized Parklands map for you to print out.

Here is the original full Concept Plan document with all the details - and a full financial plan. This document will be rewritten once Green Hills negotiations for leases on the precinct land get underway, following the master planning process.

See a slideshow of photos taken on the Precinct land in 2003.

See a slideshow of photos taken during the recent open day in August 2007.

See a slideshow of photos of the northern wetland area in heavy rain taken on 24 Aug.

See a 360 degree panorama of the Precinct site (QuickTime plugin required 512kb).

New to the Maleny Community Precinct debate? Here is a background document with a wealth of info: Background_info.pdf (608kb)

Read comment on the Precinct at the Maleny Voice website.