LetteroftheWeek
Have strong opinions, write in an engaging way? You could win our Letter of the Week, and with it a book from our friends and sponsors, the publishers HarperCollins. This month’s book prize is Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter. Mother, hero, liar, killer? The new blockbuster thriller from international bestselling author of The Good Daughter.
THERE has been a member of my family living on the Gold Coast ever since my great-grandparents in the early 1900s.
I remember crawling through the rutile sand mining plant a great uncle worked at on Currumbin Beach.
I grew up through the best of times ’70s in the surf.
Jobs were easy to find and the best beaches in the world were a walk or pushbike ride up the road.
Tourists have always been a bane of our lives and of course, Brissos (we could always tell who they were from their pale, spotty teenage faces).
And in the ’80s the southerners came and put cranes in our skies and cement shadows across the sand.
Whilst our family hasn’t been here for 50,000 years like the traditional owners, I feel a sense of place on the Gold Coast.
So when others come here and want to build out into our ocean or take away the beauty with blocks of cement I feel angry, yes, frustrated, probably, but mostly pushed aside
as the love of money bullies its way through the love of my hometown.
I say all this only to say that whilst they fight over who has the best cement block or who has taken over the most land, they can never take away the best times we locals had in the best place.
BURLEIGH RESIDENT
HEAVEN help Gold Coasters who are enjoying the last bastion of wide open space at The Spit if city leaders ever get their greedy hands on this beautiful area of Crown land (‘Give Spit back’, GCB, 11/08).
The statement that “the area ... is worth billions of dollars” should send shivers down the spine of those who love and enjoy The Spit.
The State Government is doing the right thing by Coast residents in protecting us from developers who, having ruined our laid-back coast with their wind-funnelling, shadow-creating highrises, now want to ruin this area as well.
To those who advocate a cruise ship terminal: Are you aware that Coast residents won’t be allowed to join a cruise as it will only be for day disembarking passengers?
Not much gain for the common people but plenty of negatives.
DENISE MELLER, MAIN BEACH
ON behalf of the Nerang Men’s Shed, we would like to say a huge thank you to everybody in the community who supported our Farmers Support sausage sizzle at Bunnings in Nerang on Friday.
Donations and profits from the day came to the very handsome total of $1050, which will all go to the farmers’ relief fund.
Thank you once again Nerang – you are wonderful people.
FRANK TEWKESBURY, SOUTHPORT