Submission to Our City Our Plan (Major Updates 2 and 3) by Save Currumbin

Quick steps to make submission

There are moments in history, that when looking back upon them, make us think,  "I wish we had done more."

Don't let Currumbin's unique attributes and attractions be the victim of insatiable commercialization that mixes concrete with capital and entombs the very lifeblood of an ecosystem and a community. 

This tiny pocket of unique vegetation, wildlife and harmony must be protected from the growing creep of over-development. 

Gold Coast City Council's revised City Plan will strip this bio-diverse, ecologically friendly region of all that makes it unique, replacing it's laid-back village atmosphere with high-rise apartment complexes that eat into the vegetated cliffs and ridges of Currumbin Hill. 

There are many reasons for Council to stop and take notice of what the people say about Currumbin and why the local laws must help protect it.

Save Currumbin's submissions seek to preserve the vegetated ridges and cliffs for all and not have them entombed in concrete for the financial gain of a few.

Adopting Save Currumbin’s submissions will: 

1. Ensure the Gold Coast is able to offer diverse opportunities for tourists and locals alike, rather than cookie cutter experiences from North to South. Unlike it's glamorous and glitzy sister-cities (Surfers Paradise & Broadbeach), Currumbin offers a visitors slower pace, a place to relax, recharge and re-connect.  Central to this is Currumbin's village lifestyle and family-friendly atmosphere which visitors flock to droves craving for seaside recreation, sculpture festivals, and a connection with nature and its animals.

   Testament to this is the thriving Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary which is arguably one of the Gold Coast's most popular and well-known tourist attractions.  Council's plans to allow developers to effectively bulldoze the natural environment by denuding the ridges of vegetation and allowing apartments to literally be built into the culturally and environmentally sensitive Currumbin Hill ridges and cliffs will severely damage wildlife, particularly the bird life so essential to that attraction's on-going viability and wreck visual amenity for all those who come to visit Currumbin.

2. Balance consumer demand with ecological needs by stopping developers from openly flouting Council rules trying to squeeze 5+storey buildings into what is supposed to be a 3 storey maximum.
3. Preserving the City Plan and giving certainty to both developers and the community alike based on irrefutable plans that do not deviate with lobbying or influence.
4. Stop needlessly expensive and socially damaging 'fights' between developers and locals each time a Development Application is lodged that seeks to destroy Currumbin's vegetation, wildlife habitat, unique land forms and public amenity through excessive height and density.
5. Stop needless expensive litigation of constant Appeals in the Planning and Environment Court in the future.
6. Keep Currumbin low-rise, green and family-friendly. Our submission calls for the scrapping of the ill-conceived idea that Pacific Parade be turned into a late night bar scene.

7. Promote alternative forms of tourism on the Gold Coast. Currumbin Beach is the gateway to the Currumbin Valley, which brings the rainforest to the sea. Keeping Currumbin Beach free from over-development, enhancing its unique land forms and vegetation; and protecting its unique wildlife, offers Gold Coast Tourism the perfect opportunity to increase shares in the growing eco-tourism market. A rapidly growing market, eco-tourism attracts those looking for alternatives to the glitz, glamour and high-rise of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach.

8. Understanding that biodiversity is the key to a healthy eco-system. In order to preserve the local biodiversity, green corridors for animals must be maintained and protected. Currumbin Hill,  its ridges and vegetated cliffs form a natural wildlife corridor for animals and birds that stretches all the way inland to the border ranges.
9. Stop Currumbin going the way of Palm Beach. The local community has spoken, Palm Beach's revised City Plan has forever changed the nature of the area - don't let Currumbin suffer the same fate.
10. Preserve Currumbin’s uniqueness as a seaside green village flanked by ridges like the vegetated cliffs of Woodgee Street the traditional inhabitants called song lines : "Listening to the song of the land is the same as walking on this songline and observing the land."

Council has a responsibility to the traditional owners, residents, visitors and wildlife of Currumbin to preserve its uniqueness and spiritual essence. This is a requirement of the SEQ Regional Plan  

"Traditional Owners have an ongoing and unique connection to their ancestral lands and have responsibilities to the land and sea under their
traditional law and customs."

What hypocrites the government would be to encourage us all to give our respects to the Traditional Owners past present and emerging of a place like Currumbin, but then have local laws that make it impossible for them to discharge that responsibility.

The current or proposed amended City Plan is an affront to the traditional Owners and must be amended.

Save Currumbin's submissions have been prepared by one of Queensland's top town planners, with input from a team including  traditional elders, scientists, geo-engineers, lawyers, local rate payers, community organizations, and visitors to one of the most naturally beautiful and unique areas on the Gold Coast.

Failure to adopt these well-reasoned submissions may mean Currumbin's green ridges/songlines die or are desecrated with reckless development butchering the ridges, rocky outcrops, vegetation and animals that helped to inspire them.