Turf club ignores protesters and lake petition

PROTESTERS have marched from Evandale Council Chambers to the Gold Coast Turf Club in a show of support for Black Swan Lake.

The 20-strong group on Saturday said the Gold Coast Turf Club’s refusal to acknowledge them, when they fronted the venue armed with a signed petition to stop the filling of the lake was a disgrace.

The group marched, with a police escort, wielding signs, pickets, megaphones and the petition with 40,000 signatures.

Black Swan Lake Alliance’s Caroline Sartori said the turf club “refused to acknowledge us in any way, and said they won’t accept the petition”.

“They don’t think 40,000 people’s opinions matter, and that’s a hard thing to understand.

“We believe that the turf club has sneaky ways of going about this lake, that they don’t actually need it for a carpark.”

Gold Coast Turf Club CEO Steve Lines said he was aware the group would be present on Saturday.

He said their claims were unfounded.

“But we’re not the landlords for starters – we have a licence to occupy the area,” Mr Lines said.

“People are entitled to have an opinion, we respect that, but this is about the future of our organisation and the space is required for that.”

He said there was more to it than just a carpark, it was about looking after the horses and using the green space.

“It’s about the viability and long term, doing what we do to sustain the club over the next 50 years,” he said.