PARKS COMMERCIALISED

OUR national parks are undergoing commercialisation and creeping privatisation.

Brett Godfrey, the multi-millionaire founder of Virgin Australia, has built commercial huts on Cradle Mountain in Tasmania and plans to build luxury lodges in the Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island, comparing it to a “businessclass” experience.

A company partly owned by Mr Godfrey has been shortlisted for a Queensland Government contract to build private accommodation in three Queensland national parks, including on Hinchinbrook Island.

Taxpayer money will be used for civil works and “base infrastructure” for the accommodation, and the companies involved may be offered rent abatement.

Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones is pushing this commercialisation, saying that the private sector are the best placed to offer the genuine tourism experience.

What ever does she mean by that? Our national parks are full of local and overseas tourists (families, couples, groups of friends), who spend money at small businesses (lodging, cafes, shops).

But evidently they are not having a “genuine tourism experience,” It seems that a genuine tourism experience can only be achieved by paying money that goes to companies having shareholders.

Closer to home we have Goomburra in the Main Range National Park. The Spicers Group has been given permission to build private accommodation at Goomburra.

The accommodation is only for people who pay to take a guided tour on the Spicers Group’s proposed Scenic Rim Trail.

Yet just outside of the park are several places that offer cabin accommodation.

MARY PETR, Toowoomba