By TANIA PHILLIPS
THE visit of former Greens Senator Bob Brown was seen as the perfect time to launch a petition to have Lot 490, the parcel of land between Kingscliff and Salt, declared a nature reserve.
A group of Kingscliff residents headed up by Jerry Cornford and Trevor Reece have launched the petition after the developer pulled the pin on the proposed tourism development approved for the land.
Leighton Properties had been granted State Government permission last year to build a $100 million bungalow-style eco-resort on the 43 hectares of Crown Land between Kingscliff and Salt but has now decided not to go ahead with the project.
“We want to keep it as it is and rededicate it as a coastal reserve and preserve it as a wildlife corridor, native habitat,” Mr Cornford said outside the Kingscliff Amenities Hall on Saturday afternoon.
“First of all it’s good planning sense because traditionally coastal villages and towns particularly are separated by green belts. It makes sense – it gives them their identity and provides a cooling effect on the climate and that sort of thing.
“Secondly there are a lot of endangered species and there are some critically endangered species.”
He said the word had been put around that the land had been mined but Mr Cornford disputed this.
“Four-ninety was actually never mined, it was used as a dump for some of the tailings for the mines on either side. But whether it was or not is irrelevant – bush regenerates.
“There are a couple of plants in there that are so rare that the Millennium Project in Kew Gardens in England has actually arranged to collect seeds from them this season.”
Mr Cornford said he thought the visit of Bob Brown was the ideal time to launch the petition and the former Greens senator even stopped by, before heading inside, to lend his support.
“It was very good of him to come on board – we were always going to re-launch the campaign and we felt this was the ideal opportunity,” he said.
Mr Cornford, Mr Reece and their supporters had been vocal last year when the development was before the Planning Assessment Commission. However it looked as though their battle was lost when the development was approved.
“From now on there will people doorknocking and there will be petitions in some of the shops – we’d like as many people to get on board. Our aim is 5000 plus so that Barry O’Farrell has to take account of it and we can table it in parliament.”
Conflicts between Tweed Shire Council and the community over the best future use of the high-profile site have been happening since the ’70s however they came to a head in 2004 when the NSW Government decided to take control of Lot 490 from the council, which it later sacked.
But Leighton’s withdrawal has opened the door for the council to again have a say over the land.
In May councillors voted unanimously to use the opportunity of the scrapped development to try to get a new vision for Lot 490, but this time they want to make sure the community feels involved.
Back then Cr Katie Milne called on her fellow councillors to support a public workshop about Lot 490’s future, with an invitation to be extended to the NSW Minister responsible for Crown Land, Katrina Hodgkinson.
