BIG MAC, HERE FOR LONG TIME
Resident opinion over the commercial use of community parks has long been debated, none more so than when a famous car race arrived
DEVELOPMENT of Gold Coast parks has long been a controversial issue.
While the city has a significant amount of open space and public parkland, developers in recent years have been allowed to take over space within some parks while they build their towers.
The Bulletin last year revealed how a developer of a high-rise apartment tower at Main Beach secured use of a park to store construction huts for a year for cheap rent.
It also revealed developers of the 38-storey tower Midwater at Main Beach gave a $300,000 bond for the use of the historic Cable Park for a three-year period.
The park is the original reserve for the installation of the Pacific Telegraph Cable which connected Southport and Australia across the Pacific Ocean to Canada in 1902.
Last month, councillors revised the city’s park usage policy after nearly a year of community outrage. The laundry list of new requirements include developers being forced to pay rent of up to $3.50 per square metre of used space a week, up from $2.90.
Development encroaching on parkland and open space is hardly a new story, with Surfers Paradise’s Macintosh Island at the epicentre of more than 30 years of debate and battles over the green oasis between the towers and the beach.
Macintosh Island was originally known as Hope Island after early resident George Hope, who in turn renamed it after his brother-in-law, Captain Macintosh.
The land was bought in the late 1950s by developer and future mayor Sir Bruce Small, who planned to dredge the Nerang River to build his new subdivision on 15 acres of reclaimed land.
But Sir Bruce, already busy building his own Isle of Capri project, never got around to breaking ground and sold it.
The island was split in half. The western side was redeveloped to become Paradise Waters, while the eastern side was retained as a parkland.
At the dawn of the 1990s the area became part of the Indy street circuit, for which the park would be used as a pit zone.
Residents rallied against the race in mid-1990, warning it would destroy wildlife and plants and reduce the quality of residents’ lifestyles. The council’s special Indy committee that year voted against allowing the pits into the parkland.
But fast-forward to 2003 and the issue reared its head again when Indy organisers announced they wanted to build a permanent pit zone by removing part of Macintosh Island.
The temporary pits built to host the V8 Supercars in 2002 had been deemed a disappointment.
Some drivers were not
happy they had to endure makeshift pits as the main pit straight was used for the Champ cars.
Then-mayor Gary Baildon also opposed the move and launched a stinging attack on Indy bosses in early 2004 while facing re-election.
“There is no way they’re going to be making any further intrusion into Macintosh Park,” he said.
“There may be some opportunities on the road reserve but they’re not getting the parkland. They’ve taken enough as it is.
“I’m angry because I wrote to council officers and Indy
when these rumours first emerged and I was assured that there were no plans.”
Mr Baildon lost the mayoralty to Ron Clarke who came under pressure to allow the resumptions.
Indy chairman John Cowley warned the event would lose the V8s unless the pits were built. “The V8s will not be back unless we meet this part of the contract and that would be a tragedy because the V8Champ Car mix is what makes this event so special,’’ he said.
“The plans were submitted to council last week and I have met with Ron Clarke and he
understands where we are coming from.’’
The state government also warned the council to consider the importance of Indy before rejecting the bid, while Mr Clarke proposed removing a lane from the Gold Coast Highway to make way for the pit lane.
The council voted in mid-2004 to approve the land resumption but Indy bosses refused to pay for the revamp of the remaining parkland, forcing council to foot the bill.
Further controversy came in late 2006 when the council approved the demolition
of the wooden suspension bridge that ran across the island.
The decision, opposed by the Friends of Macintosh Island group, was made because of safety concerns over the size of Indy crowds.
Friends of Macintosh Island chairman Don Magin insisted it would cause “substantial damage”, saying: “`They are raping the environment in that park.”
It was replaced by the existing concrete bridge.