Sour Grapes Or Legitimate Complaint?

Sid Pate, the head of the Holiday Media Network, who lost his bid to manage the Double Island Point Lighthouse near Rainbow Beach, Queensland, Australia, is making plans to sue the Noosa Parks Association (NPA). Claiming the group has mismanaged the lighthouse and is failing to protect the environment by cutting down trees, the potential lawsuit is the latest of his efforts to prove collusion between the NPA and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) staff regarding the awarding of the contract to manage the lighthouse. He said this week Gympie Regional Council, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other stakeholders including Maritime Safety and Queensland Heritage Council, were failing to protect the site from environmental harm at the hands of the volunteer-run conservation group.

The drama began when the site was offered in 2001 to interested parties under the Nature Conservation Act of 1992, to operate the Noosa National Park Information Center. Besides the Holiday Media Network, others expressed an interest (officially known as an EOI) including a group known as Mincedeen Pty Ltd., who had planned to open the facility up to the public as a holiday camp and provide a sizeable annual return to the State Government - an assessment criteria featured prominently in the panel’s judgement. They were alleged to be the preferred applicant by the panel. But according to Pate, collusion between all the groups led to the Noosa Parks Association being awarded the caretaker position.

Audit Fails To Find Fault

He requested an audit, and while the report came back clearing the EPA, at least for the most part, there were some questions remaining. The audit found no evidence of unfair dealing by the EPA in the management of the EOI, the call for applicants, or the assessment of submissions. But the audit made a number of recommendations in relation to the EOI process, including “greater rigour applied to the EOI and assessment processes to demonstrate equity, transparency, and accountability.”

Another point in the audit acknowledged was the sale of beer and wine by the NPA, considering it an issue for further consideration by QPWS. The EPA at first was going to allow it, but after outrage from the community and environmentalists, the Environment Minister, Andrew McNamara, scrapped the proposal.

Then in steps another player, a local environmentalist, Dennis Massoud, who is fighting to have all commercial activity, including the controversial Visitor Information Center, removed from Noosa National Park. Massoud said the park should return to its pre-white settlement state, and it had been “prostituted” by allowing commercial activity to overtake the original National Parks vision of preserving natural heritage.

Trees Cut and Partying Complaints

The next chapter was a complaint filed stating that the NPA had chopped down trees illegally, to provide a “better view for members of the NPA partying in the two cottages by the lighthouse.” A senior ranger for the Parks and Wildlife details in a 2002 email a list of unauthorized clearing and planting works including the removal of large pine trees, which the ranger warned may have been of heritage value. An unapproved 100m walkway was cleared through the National Park without EPA authority, he also said.

Both cottages are off limits to the public, and a 2001 newsletter from the NPA allegedly stated that the organization’s highest priority in securing lease of the site was the restoration of the two cottages to provide holiday accommodation for “lucky members” of the group. Members supposedly had to work on weeding the site and other maintenance jobs as part of their holiday and were subject to a strict series of rules, according to a member.

The member interviewed by the Noosa Journal said holidaymakers were asked to be conservative with electricity as the facility was powered by solar. She pointed to a list of jobs she and her houseguests had to perform as a condition of their seaside holiday. The site, which appeared to be in good repair except for several beer cans and bottles, contained a surf ski, surf board and kids boogie boards among other vacation equipment, according to the report by the paper.

Restraint Order To Be Filed

Alleging that the NPA cleared trees without approval, modified buildings and carried out work on the site without various approvals, Pate said he was confident the documents made a strong case for a restraint order against the group. He expected to lodge his complaint as soon as he had received responses from the last of the stakeholders he’d lobbied for action. This was necessary before the court process could begin.

“All have failed to protect the environmental, cultural and heritage values of this site,” Pate said. “All I am asking of all the stakeholders is to do your job and protect this sensitive site.”

More information about the Double Island Point Lighthouse is available at the Lighthouses of Australia site.

Photo Credits:

• Double Island Point, Queensland by Deb Polson. Some rights reserved.
• Sunrise, Rainbow Beach, Queensland, Australia by Laura Grace. Some rights reserved.

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