World deserves to know truth about ‘real’ Coast

I AM writing to you with great concern over the filling in of this amazing habitat in Bundall.

I moved to Broadbeach Waters in 1974 with my parents and have seen some of the most appalling destruction of Gold Coast habitat by the long line of boom and bust developers for over 45 years.

I witnessed Benowa Waters being built and remember the construction of the “Effluent Lake” for the Turf Club.

In those days the area behind the Turf Club was mainly sand and swamp and the Gold Coast Council, not Albert Shire Council, insisted that the lake was needed to protect the nearby canals from pollution runoff from the stables.

If the Effluent Lake was so important then, to control stable runoff, why is it not important now, when there are three times as many horses as there were in 1975?

Up until 2017 my wife and I had businesses in Nerang and we lived in Nerang. We have moved temporarily to England in our semi retirement. We needed a break from the madness of the Gold Coast.

The rule of developers during the Bjelke-Petersen era just continues on today, with little regard to the long term citizens of the Coast.

The Carrara flood plain is now destined to become a Chinese theme park and Black Swan Lake is to be filled in to provide a park for who?

I have been to China and have seen first hand how urbanisation destroys the structure and fabric of communities.

I am living in the UK now, where there is a constant battle to manage development on green field sites and loss of countryside, as the councils and governments desperately struggle with accommodating the population growth.

After I moved to the Gold Coast in 1974, I could never understand why the inhabitants of the Gold Coast had to live with environments and infrastructure that have been developed by so many poor council decisions, manipulated by wealthy vested interests.

The Commonwealth Games will be held in a few weeks’ time. It will be interesting to see what the people of the United Kingdom think of the Coast from the broadcasts here on the BBC.

I know that the media propaganda sent out to the world from the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Committee will be intense, trying to make the Gold Coast look the most ideal city on the shores of the Pacific. I bet that there will be no mention of Black Swan Lake on any telecast!

I am so incensed with what council is doing with the Coast at the moment that I will just have to tell the truth to anyone who asks me here about the “real” Gold Coast! SIMON YELLAND, CLITHEROE, ENGLAND (FORMERLY OF NERANG)