THE TWEED SHIRE Volume 1 #40 Thursday, June 11, 2009 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 Fax: (02) 6672 4933 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
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Residents give retail plan the tick A developer planning to alter the face of Cabarita’s retail heart has won the support of key community groups after taking the unusual step of involving them in the design process for the $16 million project. West Australian-based Stockwell Pty Ltd
is asking the NSW Department of Planning to approve a supermarket, shops and 23 twobedroom apartments in a three-to-four storey development in the middle of town. Cabarita Residents’ Association president Cath Lynch says the company engaged with the community about its plan before it submitted its development application, and even
accepted suggestions to redesign parts of the building to reduce bulk and scale and improve the frontage. ‘In the end they came up with a much better concept and the residents association is backing it 100 per cent,’ she said. ‘The apartments to be built above the supermarket and shops make use of good design
Jessica’s memory moves the marathon man Story and photo Jeff Dawson
You could be forgiven for thinking Craig Goozee was a ping or two short of a sat-nav system when he left Australia Square headed for the Opera House. Most of us would go down George, across Circular Quay and Bob’s your uncle. Not Craig, he headed over the Harbour Bridge and after seven days crossed the Brunswick River and then went across the Queensland border where he will continue to run, ride and paddle his kayak
to Rockhampton whence he’ll turn left, keeping an eye out for another left when he hits Broome. He’ll slip down through Kalgoorlie, hang a left at Norseman and back across to Melbourne. From there Goozee will hop across to Tassie (the one leg he will fly) then back to Melbourne before the uphill trek (well it looks uphill on the map) back to Sydney, all this he calculates he can do in 92 days. When asked by The Echo how the trip was going so far, Craig laconically answered, ‘Wet!’
He added, ‘The first couple of days were a bit of a shock to the body but now I’m into a rhythm I’m feeling much better. I’m doing the equivalent of half a marathon each day’ Craig is motivated by the memory of his oldest daughter Jessica who died 10 years ago from cancer. ‘Jessica would have been 19 this year, I wrote the book, For One For All, as a testament to Jessica’s determination and courage. This undertaking is also dedicated to her very special life and the thousands
First Home Buyers
of children who have to go through so much, so young,’ said the very fit 45-year-old who hails from Sydney’s northern beach suburb of Avalon. Mr Goozee has so far raised $200,000 towards the million he hopes to raise from this uber-Triathalon which is called A2B4C: A, Australia Square, to B, Bennelong Point, for cancer research. This is the father of five’s third, and he says, last marathon, the previous two in 1998 and 2000 raising $650,000. You can follow his progress on www.a2b4c.com.au.
features so that they have breezeways and are not too visually intrusive.’ Ms Lynch said because of the improved design, residents wouldn’t object to the development possibly exceeding the town’s normally jealously guarded three-storey height limit. ‘We’ve had a very good working relationship with the company which appears to have genuinely listened to our concerns. ‘It’s in stark contrast to the arrogance displayed towards the community by the developers of The Beach across the road,’ said Ms Lynch, who has been at the forefront of the association’s push for quality projects for more than a decade. ‘It’s a pity that other developers don’t take the same approach, it shows if they are willing to work with the community it’s possible to get an outcome that’s acceptable to everyone.’ The Cabarita Beach Business Association also supports the development, approving Stockwell’s decision to consult with stakeholders instead of trying to bulldoze it through the council and the department. ‘We suggested that they need to engage the community and they have done that,’ said association president Chris Gregory. ‘The centrepiece of the development of the site now occupied by ageing shops, a petrol station and workshop is a 2,400-square-metre Woolworths supermarket. The department is calling for public submissions to the proposed redevelopment, setting a June 16 deadline. Among those who will be opposing the development is the Pottsville Business Association which is objecting to Stockwell’s identification of Pottsville and its suburbs as part of their trade area if the supermarket gets the go-ahead. Association president Tania Murdock says the supermarket would need to poach customers from other areas because Cabarita’s population of some 3,400 people with little room to expand was not big enough to support a supermarket of the size proposed. Another tipped to object is Casuarina developer Don O’Rorke who last month was given the green light for a 2,150-square-metre supermarket after the council overturned its planners’ advice and allowed Kings Beach No continued on page 2
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