Palm
Cove News
July 2005
LOCAL
RESIDENTS TO CHALLENGE COUNCIL
The newly formed Clifton Beach/PalmCove Community Association has invited
Palm Cove residents in their entirety to attend a meeting with Cairns
City Council on July 14th at council chambers.
President of the association Peter Johnston said some recent decisions
by the Planning and Environment Committee were "not on."
The issues include the loss of the golf course, size of subdivision
lots, population densities of subdivisions, and the hillslopes.
Action group formed
A PALM COVE community
group has begun the formidable task of keeping residents wishes in the
minds of the authorities. The group will concentrate on property development,
traffic, and hillslopes, etc.
Following a meeting of 30 people at Sanctuary Resort on June 16, the
group decided to become a sub-branch of the existing Clifton Beach Community
Association Incorporated. It also adopted a petition to be sent to Cairns
Council. Vice President of CBCA Fiona Tulip, who attended the meeting,
said that as incorporation of the group had been expensive and time-consuming,
it would be better for both groups to amalgamate. "We are already
active, and we need more members. The more we have the stronger we will
be," she said. Fiona said the combined group could consider a name
change such as Northern Beaches Community Association. Membership is
$10 per household per annum with no joining fee. "Concerned Palm
Cove people should certainly join," she said. Apply to Fiona, phone
4059 0442.
Mr Michael Sumner-Potts, who chaired the Sanctuary meeting, said member
Mr Bill Tuckwell and he had unearthed a 1997 court ruling that could
challenge the Indigo Novotel development and the loss of the golf course.
"We sent a copy to coulcil on June 20 acknowledged by Cr Gill,"
he said.
Indigo development manager Dennis Nichol told Cairns Post 25/6/05 that
the 1997 order was never implemented and that it would have fallen away
with subsequent approvals.
Mayor Kevin Byrne has promised investigation of the issue.
Backpackers
packed off
BACKPACKER resort
Palm Cove Retreat, situated between Foley Road Extension and the highway,
is no more. Owned and operated by Terry and Barbara Warren, the 33 hectare
property was sold to Cairns developers Hedley Projects for a residential
subdivision. Speaking from Mareeba, Terry said it ended a long and happy
association with Palm Cove. Warren St was named after his family. The
land has since been cleared, the buildings have been demolished, and
ground work on stage one has begun. Hedley's development manager David
Row said his company had council approval for 172 allotments of sizes
450 to 1200 sq metres. "The project will be heavily vegetated,"
he said. "We will be building on less than half the total site."
Mr Row said the development would be "exceptionally nice"
and in keeping with the high standards now required for Palm Cove. Blazing
Saddles, operating on Hedley land, would continue for the time being,
a spokesman for that company said.
Indigo
to tell it all
A COMMUNITY information
session will be conducted by Indigo Projects at the conference centre,
Novotel Palm Cove on Thursday, 14 July from 3 -7pm. Indigo will outline
its plans for the redevelopment.
Details : Peter Kelly, 0416 159 985. Novotel's conference centre is
above the golf club office. Enter from the rear.
Letter
to Editor
Re last month's
edition, we were saddened to think that Palm Cove, a piece of paradise,
will be history.
What a shock to read the golf course will have 390 dwellings on it,
couldn't believe it.
We have enjoyed five holidays in Palm Cove over the last five years
and found the area a delight. We did enjoy golf at Novotel.
Plenty of our friends have travelled north to Palm Cove on our recommendation
and all thought it great.
Soon it will be a suburb of Cairns if this development happens. Think
we will give it a miss in future.
I'm sure the residents are voicing their concerns of increased traffic,
etc.
Margot McAvoy, East Burwood, Vic.
COVE
PEOPLE
Les and Betty Barnett
of Talpa Court must belong to a very exclusive group : they have lived
in Palm Cove more than 25 years.
Les says he remembers 1981 when the heavens opened and they had 70 inches
(nearly two metres) of rain in ten days. "We were walking around
in three inches of it most of the time," he said. "Tom McDonald's
house (now Angsana) was an island. Lorna Goldfinch's shop on the opposite
corner (now Clarion) had a wave wash into the shop every time a car
drove by." Betty said there were three neighbours in Talpa Court
when they bought their 3-bedroom home, but all had since sold and moved
elsewhere. "There aren't too many 25-year people in Palm Cove,"
she said. Les, now 83 and retired, was in the bakery and pastrycook
business. His dad pulled him out of school at age 14 to help in the
family bakery. When World War 2 came along, 19-year-old Les wanted to
escape the tedium of daily life and liked the prospect of going overseas
on what he saw as a great adventure. He applied to join the army. "Bakery
was an essential industry and they wouldn't accept me," he said.
"So I changed jobs and got in that way." He served in Darwin,
New Guinea, Moratoi, and Borneo.
Returning home, he opened a pastrycook business in Lorne, Victoria,
and retired in 1980. Les and Betty met and married in Lorne and had
four sons.
They now spend their days playing bridge and golf, making improvements
to the house, and partying on with like-minded retirees. They collect
up to a dozen books a week from the library and read most of them.
Would they ever leave Palm Cove? "We like it here," they said.
Indigo
major sponsor
TOURISM PALM COVE
spokesperson Colleen Were says Indigo is the major sponsor for Fiesta
this year.
"We are very pleased that Indigo has come on board," she said.
"The event will go ahead at Palm Cove on Sunday, October 16th and
should be as good as, if not better than, our last event." Festival
Cairns' food and wine event and the Amateurs will be in September.
"With our Fiesta to follow, locals and visitors are in for a great
time," she said. Indigo Projects is a Brisbane-based property development
company which is involved with projects worth one billion dollars mainly
in Queensland. They include redevelopment of Clarion Resort and Novotel
Resort, both in Palm Cove.
Beach
clean-up time
With the
2005 Clean Beach Competition commencing early August, volunteers are
invited to help in a beach clean-up on Sunday 10th July, 8am to 11 am.
Please meet opposite Cocky's at 8am to register. Co-ordinator is Colleen
Were. "We won Australia's Cleanest Beach in 2003. Bring some gloves
and let's give it another shot," she said.
Colleen's phone is 4055 3901.
Published
by Jerry Dukes
52 Terebra St
Palm Cove 4879 QLD
Ph 4059 1610 Fax 4059 0058
Email : info@palmcovenewsletter.com
On website : http://www.palmcovenewsletter.com