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Wednesday, November 28, 2018
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Christmas joy rides in
Hundreds of motorcyclists, just like Noel Martin of Atherton (pictured), delivered Christmas joy across the Tablelands on Saturday in the 2018 Tablelands Toy Run. Now in its 22nd year, the annual event helps to kick off the Christmas season by collecting toys and donations for underprivileged children at Christmas. PHOTOS P14.
Kuranda residents rally against KUR-World
DOZENS of outraged residents gathered at Kuranda’s Centenary Park on Saturday to voice their opposition to the proposed KURWorld development. Saturday’s meeting saw a number of guest speakers raise concerns about the potentially irreparable environmental and social impacts KUR-World could have on Kuranda and its surrounding communities. KUR-Alert President Ste-
ven Nowakowski alleged that if KUR-World were to go ahead, there would be far-reaching implications for the region. “I don’t think a lot of people quite understand the scale of this proposal,” he said. “This is a huge development, one of which is going to cater for roughly 4,700 people. “The social, environmental and economic strain that it is going to put on this town is going
to impact our future immensely.” Mr Nowakowski said Kuranda residents are in favour of development, just not mass development. “I think the Government’s mantra of regional jobs and growth at any cost is a folly, because we’re all going to pay for it in some way,” he said. “If this development is to be allowed, taxpayers are going to have to foot a 1.1 billion dollar
new Kuranda Range Road to facilitate KUR-World. “That’s why I believe it is disingenuous to think that regional jobs and growth is going to benefit this town, if anything it is going to take away jobs in the community as our small business owner’s currently operating struggle to compete with the giant that is KUR-World.” Mr Nowakowski said the increase in congestion on the
Kuranda Range and the uncertainty surrounding water allocations are further issues that will plague the community once KUR-World is up and running. Despite the uphill battle residents appear to be facing in their bid to stop KUR-World, Mr Nowakowski has been ecstatic with the response from the community in fighting back. “It has been outstanding,” he said. “The Kuranda commu-
nity is a wonderful and beautiful community, and because we love to live and breathe in this very green environment, we try to preserve it at all costs.” “We have compiled statistics since this campaign to stop KUR-World began, and I can safely say that more than 70% of the Kuranda population have expressed reservation and concern in relation to this development.” CONTINUED P3
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