Month: September 2020

Douglas Shire Council hosted a public consultation meeting on Monday, as the first of seven community meetings concerning the Interim Report from Council on the Daintree River crossing options. The meeting’s specific focus was the “financial and services aspects of a bridge or two ferries.”

We acknowledge the Eastern Kuku Yalanji Bama as the rightful custodians of this land, and we seek to assist the Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation in achieving the aspirations of the custodians..
Jabalbina have asked that their letter (to UNESCO) not be published. DSSG respects that request, has removed it from DSSG websites and social media and asked any others who have published it to do the same.

The seeds for an open garden event in the Douglas Shire were sewn at the 2019 Douglas Shire Garden Awards night with beloved gardener, Costa Georgiadis. While the ‘Let It Grow’ awards reward the finest gardens, there seemed a missed opportunity for the public to visit and experience the beauty and unique nature of the entrant gardens. Passionate food grower and gardener, Monika Prins, also noticed that during the Covid lockdown, many fellow community members were getting their hands dirty in the garden. She decided to take action, and to start working on an Open Garden event. Her enthusiasm was unstoppable. She got novice veggie gardener, Mandy Stone, on board to help out, and they developed a plan and a vision for the project.

Remember when political parties were condemned for being “poll-driven”. If only they were poll-driven (rather than donor-driven) now. We would have good population, climate, energy, tax and defence policies, as various publications in the past week or so reveal…

Summary of this week’s international SOS findings on the development of COVID immunity and vaccine development:

As a retired Community Development Worker experienced in social research for community organisations and local government, I believe it is important to explore the current research/survey methodology being undertaken by the Douglas Shire Council.

I was the superintendent of Mossman Hospital in 1983 as the Daintree blockade, led by Mike Berwick, was unfolding. While the Blockade was ultimately unsuccessful and a new road was carved from Cape Tribulation to Bloomfield, the Blockade led to the World Heritage listing of the Daintree Rainforest, limiting its development and totally preventing logging..Fast forward to 2020 – the year of COVID-19….The Bloomfield Track remains a windy unsealed road with steep sections. For an undisclosed reason, the new Council has re-opened the issue of building a bridge.  I don’t understand how this became a priority….

The Daintree River Crossing Options Report prepared by the Douglas Shire Council is not an economic analysis that governments would use to determine if an option is worth funding. Cost Benefit Analysis reports are used to show if a project generates a net public benefit or cost. The Cost Benefit Analysis shows: Two Ferry Option yields a $6.817 million net benefit while the Bridge Option yields a $40.644 million net cost.

When NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro threatened to move all his members, including ministers, to the crossbench unless the NSW Government backed down on koala protection, Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian immediately called his bluff: do that and all National Ministers would be sacked and the Liberals would govern alone. There would be no change to koala protection.

In a year of unprecedented uncertainty, Cairns Regional Council (CRC) have stepped up to the plate and committed to a five-year, multi-million-dollar funding agreement with Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ).