Australia Up Close

Ecotourism Project Stirs Controvery in Gold Coast

By Chelsea McLean

"Ecotourism" is the new buzz word in the Australian tourism industry. "Eco" is short for "ecology."

Ecotourism is a lucrative business and the Gold Coast, where I live, is the perfect place for a nature-based experience because its natural assets are very beautiful.

When people think of the Gold Coast they usually think of the beach, theme parks and streets of exciting restaurants and night clubs. But the Gold Coast also features a hinterland with sprawling green mountains and rain forests just inland from the coastline. The Gold Coast tourism industry wants to add its beautiful hinterland region to the list of reasons why people should come to the Gold Coast for a holiday.

A consortium of international interests headed by a Gold Coast company, Morris International, has spotted the opportunity to build a cableway to carry tourists through the hinterland.They have called the cableway project "Naturelink" and describe it as an "ecotourism nature experience ride" designed to educate visitors about the environment.

If it goes ahead, it will be the longest cableway in the world, with 150 6-seater cable cars linked together by 52 towers and four stations. It will also feature a 350 seat four-level bistroand gift shop. The cost to build the Naturelink project is estimated at Australian $50 million ( 3.3 billion). It has the capacity to create around 600 jobs and attract up to 499,000 visitors per year.

A similar cableway already exists in the northern Queensland city of Cairns. It carries up to 700 people per hour from Cairns to Kuranda and crosses above a World Heritage rain forest.

The proposed Gold Coast cableway will be similar to the Cairns cableway, but bigger and able to carry up to 900 people per hour. It will span 11 kilometers from Mudgeeraba to the Purlingbrook Falls near Springbrook.

Tourists will have stunning views of rain forests, waterfalls and the Gold Coast on the Pacific Ocean. When you experience the beauty of this place it is easy to see why Naturelink developers are so keen to let people enjoy it.

Whether to go ahead with the Naturelink project is an issue generating enormous public interest. The venture was announced in July 1997 and still requires government approval to proceed. Nature conservationists and some local residents are strongly opposed to it because they believe it will disrupt the environment.

Naturelink developer, former Gold Coast Mayor Ray Stevens, said the project is designed to showcase the natural environment without harming it in any way.

"There is virtually no environmental impact with such cableways, as the Cairns experience has shown, and it is one of the most effective ways of educating the public about the environment and our natural assets," said Mr. Stevens.

To minimize disturbance to the environment, materials for the cableway will be transported by helicopter to eliminate the need to build roads. Towers linking the cableway will be camouflaged so that they are barely visible against the forested backdrop.

Around 350 people attended a public forum on the issue recently at the Gold Coast Griffith University campus.

One speaker at the forum, professor Ralf Buckley, said, "In its current form it's clear that the Gold Coast community is very strongly against (the project). The sector which has supported it, which is the business community, I think, is doing so on the basis of exaggerated economic claims."

Stevens is keen to consult with the people of the Gold Coast, however he acknowledges that change is a difficult process, "The more input we have to the process of change, the more easily it will be accepted when it happens."

Local residents who are opposed to the project are worried that the Springbrook National Park is fragile and that crowds will destroy the essence of the wilderness experience.

Springbrook Progress Association president Ken O'Shea is challenging the developers and trying to stop the project.

"Developers, having destroyed every environmental asset on the Gold Coast strip over the past 50 years, now find themselves having to compete in the `fashionable' world of ecotourism," O'Shea said.

Ultimately, the Queensland Government and Gold Coast City Council will decide whether the project can proceed. Naturelink is hoping for an answer by this fall. If the project is approved it will take 12 months to build and the Gold Coast will have a new attraction to add to its already extensive list of drawing cards for tourists.

Ecotourism project stirs controversy in Gold Coast

Shukan ST: Aug. 11, 2000

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