Quarry Gardens

CORRESPONDENTS to

The Chronicle (Ray Harch 14/10, M Angell 29/9 and Bill Jordan 20/10) claim that international gardens at the Bridge St quarry site are “excellent”, “...enthusiasm is there”, and “residents are keen to see the development”.

Where is the evidence for this? All the attendees at a Quarry Gardens meeting I attended gave addresses from streets around Prince Henry Heights (besides that of a duty councillor).

This defines the project as a push by residents in Toowoomba region’s most prestigious suburb for a $120 million (TC, 10/9) beautification of their front yard.

It will be spent at the expense of the less-privileged in the region, as far west as Cecil Plains. It will create a white elephant. Adequate access would probably necessitate removing footpaths and houses on the routes to it.

The concept is - of course ordinary, being shamelessly imitative of a tourist attraction in Canada.

The political ruthlessness of the Prince Henry Heights elite in arm-twisting a promise of a $250,000 (TC, 23/9) feasibility study from an ALP Premier, in Toowoomba North – one of Queensland’s marginal electorates – in the run-up to the state election is malign. Now Annastacia Palaszczuk has pork-barrelled an additional $45,000 (TC, 18/10) for international travel for Friends of Quarry Gardens proponents to visit the original Butchart Gardens.

Two courageous councillors (Bill Cahill and Nancy Sommerfield) (TC, 16/11) have stood up for the non-Prince Henry Heights residents in our TRC region. The other councillors must wait until local election time. — NEIL RIETHMULLER, Davis St, Toowoomba