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THE TWEED Volume 3 #03 Thursday, September 16, 2010 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
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LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
New township for 10,000 people gets green light Ken Sapwell
Billionaire developer Bob Ell is poised to create two ‘mini-cities’ in Tweed shire after Planning Minister Tony Kelly gave the green light to his $420 million Kings Forest project on Friday. Mr Kelly visited the 860-hectare site west of Cabarita Beach to announce concept plan approval for 4,500 new homes in 23 separate residential precincts, a town centre, two schools, and a 57-hectare golf course. Mr Ell yesterday hailed the decision as a milestone and predicted approvals for a further 5,500 homes in his Cobaki Lakes project would not be far behind, allowing construction work on either project to begin early next year.
Region’s future housing needs ‘At this stage I can’t say in which order we will be proceeding, that depends on a lot of factors including whether the people on the Tweed want projects like ours to go ahead,’ he said. Mr Kelly said the site had been zoned for residential development since 1988 and was identified in the regional plan as playing an important role in meeting the region’s future housing needs. ‘We need to cater for nearly up to 20,000 people in the Tweed area over the next 20 to 25 years’, Mr Kelly said. ‘This project will significantly go towards providing that housing stock that’s needed here, particularly as the
Tweed area continues to expand with people moving down from the northern state.’ He said he was aware of community concerns about the impacts the long-stalled project would have on the shire’s dwindling koala population and had taken steps to address them. They included a koala plan of management by koala expert Frank Carrick, which Mr Kelly said would ‘establish a comprehensive framework for koala management.’ Nearly 500 hectares would be zoned for environmental protection, including 150ha of high conservation land which would be given to the Department of Environment to add to the Cudgen Nature Reserve. He said the government’s actions would result in further plantings of koala food trees which would ‘likely double the area of the site usable by koalas’. Mr Kelly said a total of 34 conditions were attached to the approval granted to Mr Ell’s company, Leda, including demands that the ‘provision of essential local infrastructure will be amply catered for’ and the creation of ‘one and possibly two’ wildlife corridors. Mr Ell’s two master-planned developments will provide homes for up to 25,000 people in the shire’s heavily populated north-east corner over the next 20 years and account for 70 per cent of all land zoned for urban expansion. They’ll be in addition to 1,600 new homes Mr Kelly approved on the former Terranora Lakes Country Club
Legends aplenty at festival of speed Luis Feliu
The ninth annual Festival of Speed on Tweed last weekend proved historic racing cars going through their paces or simply on show for motoring buffs are a winning combination. Thousands of visitors joined locals over the three-day festival held in perfect spring weather on Murwillumbah’s temporary street track and showgrounds, with the Friday lunchtime street parade of more than 80 continued on page 2 cars followed by a nighttime street
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Living legend: Australia’s most famous motor-racing ace Sir Jack Brabham returned to the 9th annual Festival of Speed on Tweed last weekend where he lapped up the attention and was kept busy signing autographs for fans on a poster of the champion in his heyday. Photo Luis Feliu
party and a fireworks spectacular over the river. Saturday and Sunday saw more than 180 cars, ranging in vintage from pre-1930 to 2010, contest the time trials on the street circuit with the roars of old and new engines and the smell of their fuel and exhausts adding to the heady atmosphere of a grand-prix style racing event. Three-time Formula 1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham returned to the Tweed again this year for the festival and as usual was popular with spectators who lined up for his autographs of a poster of himself as a young champion driver. Sir Jack, 84, told The Echo he loved coming to Murwillumbah for the festival, with many fans rekindling his memory about some of his past
connections, cars and races. Festival of Speed on Tweed founder Roger Ealand, from Uki, said he was probably the only driver to have competed in all nine festivals to date. Roger proudly races his lovingly-restored green 1936 Alvis Speed 25 in the event. The time-trial event was won by a Brisbane man Alan McConnell driving a self-built car on old tyres. McConnell’s time of 39.48 seconds on the one-kilometre street course, set in his 1987 Van Diemen with a Suzuki motorcycle engine, was fastest by just 0.4 seconds. Second was Neil Farr in a 1976 Bowin, with last year’s winner Bill Norman a further 0.04 seconds behind in third place in his G.E.K. sports car. McConnell said he loved the Tweed continued on page 6