More to Black Swan Lake story than historical ‘facts’

IT seems very surprising that your contributor, Erik Ceslis (Letters,

GCB, 1/3), has just found out that the water body popularly known as Black Swan Lake is located in what is the Equine Precinct.

Three and a half years of community concern about this haven for 60 officially recorded species of birds and, also, the locally valuable and locally rare regrowth of original bushland, have alerted many, locally and beyond the city, to the site and plight of the lake.

Also he appears to have incomplete information, as he does not seem to realise that the area is not just dedicated to horse racing but has also been designated by Gold Coast City Council as an Events Precinct.

Campaigners have long asserted that such a water feature would be an asset to such an Equine Racing area with its attendees but also an asset for second designated usage.

He also seems unaware of the recent report in the Gold Coast

Bulletin regarding the anxiety of some stable owners that the precinct’s “dedication” to its equine nature is being compromised by what they perceive as intrusive or incompatible residential development.

Erik Ceslis does not seem to be as astonished, as many are, that the council has suddenly heeded a claimed obligation from three decades ago to fill the excavated site.

Meanwhile during these three decades of official hesitation over the excavation the lake has become, with its vegetated surrounds, worthy of consideration, subject to incoming legislation, for national protection.

His “research” should also have checked that the conservation group Wildlife Queensland, Gold Coast & Hinterland, which has been established for over half a century, is part of a statewide organisation and founded by such iconic names as the renowned Australian Judith Wright (after whom the adjacent federal electorate is named) and internationally renowned David

Fleay.

I have been honoured to be a committee member of Wildlife Queensland for much of that time, and am now its president.

It incorporates members from across the spectrum of community.

An error also. There is no wildlife commissioner in the city but perhaps there should be considering the disgraceful state of the lake, via recent “works”, now halted, to obliterate this asset.

SALLY SPAIN, PRESIDENT, WILDLIFE QUEENSLAND GOLD COAST AND HINTERLAND