Activists lament a dry argument
BLACK Swan Lake will be dead in the water by the weekend.
But Gold Coast environmentalists and lake supporters are not giving up on reviving the waterway.
In one of the city’s longest environmental battles, lake supporters want the “borrow pit” dug up.
Wildlife Preservation Society Gold Coast branch president Sally Spain said her group would continue to lobby council to dig up the site and recreate a wetlands area, returning it to residents.
Ms Spain yesterday sent a poem to the Bulletin’s letters page, which she later described as a “lament to the lake”.
“By day and by night now in our hearts our lake of the black swan no longer there you shall remain,” she wrote.
Ms Spain said the support group would continue to fight the council about its decision to give the land to the Gold Coast Turf Club.
“Our official stance is we won’t rest until this is restored. It’s public property,” Ms Spain said.
She confirmed the group’s official policy was for the fill to be “dug out”.
“If we can’t defend public property there is no hope for the environment with this current council,” Ms Spain said.
“It should be excavated. There have been wetlands world-wide with minor success where this has been done.”
“They’re spreading the dirt into the channel. There’s no swamp hens but there are egrets and spoonbills left.”
Despite ongoing legal threats, the turf club insists there will be no lastminute action which can stop site works.
“There is no legal basis for stopping the works as we have complied with all the requirements from the start,” turf club president Brett Cook said. “The existing fill material will be bulldozed out by the weekend and we will start grassing the area next.”
Lake supporters are furious with councillors who backed area councillor Gary Baildon after he spoke at length about the Gold Coast Show needing the site for carparking. Councillors at full council on Tuesday backed funding which will see the Show based at the Broadwater Parklands after the move to the turf club proved a financial failure.