Public Foreshore Parkland – SAVED!

The Whitsunday community rallied to win a 3 year fight against the Queensland Government and Whitsunday Council along with developers FKP/Outrigger/Eumundi to save their public foreshore parkland, adjacent to the Airlie Beach lagoon, from being used for a highrise hotel development.   The hotel would have extended across Airlie Creek and into what’s now known as “Fairytree Park”. The infrastructure agreement has been kept secret in Cabinet papers and to date not released under Right to Information.  In response to community outrage, the town planning decision was taken out of Council’s hands and handed to a government appointed Independent Assessor. Based on that assessment, the Minister at the time, announced the development would not proceed as it did not meet the most appropriate use for public parklands