Community faces threat to Killalea
opinion, insight
Bob Harrison
ON the evening of Tuesday, May 29, a meeting was held in the Shellharbour Links golf clubhouse, convened by the South Coast Labour Council to gauge public response to the proposed approval of accommodation units and other associated development within the Killalea State Park.
There was a common thread running through the comments of all speakers on the evening, to the effect that they felt angry that the proposal had reached a state of near finality without public consultation.
Like just about everyone else in attendance, I had only picked up pieces of information in recent media coverage, but this was enough to sound warning bells.
It is now clearly apparent that a substantial section of Killalea has been earmarked to be leased to a private development group by way of a 52-year legal agreement. This conveys a sense of finality since the majority of adults alive today will be dead and gone before the proposed lease expires or comes up for renewal. It would be unrealistic to expect that the leased area would be returned to the community in its present open space condition.
The relatively small amount of coastal land that is still available in a semi-natural state is all that future generations are ever going to have. This makes it all the more necessary for our generation to guard against it being eroded by developers.
Shellharbour City has a population of over 60,000 residents and is growing rapidly toward a possible total of 150-200,000 by the latter part of the 21st century. Future urban infill will make the need for communal open space an even greater social imperative.
This is not the first occasion on which the community has engaged in a public campaign against a government intention in relation to Killalea.
During the 1990s when I was serving as a member of the NSW Parliament, I raised in the House on a number of occasions the concern of residents about the government's stated intention to impose entry fees. In 1995 I introduced a deputation of residents to the relevant minister, Kim Yeadon, where a petition bearing 11,000 signatures of citizens, who were opposed to imposition of entry fees, was presented.
Happily the community convinced the government to change its mindset on entry fees and they did not proceed.
While still philosophically opposed to entry fees, I fervently believe that what is being planned now, involving the leasing off of part of our pristine coastal reserve to developers, is infinitely worse than what was being put forward 12 years ago.
The community once again faces a challenge, to ensure that Killalea park remains in its near pristine state.
The labour council and its affiliated unions are to be congratulated for taking a stand to keep Killalea entirely in public ownership. Labour council secretary Arthur Rorris has shown a great commitment to the community in this matter.
I appeal to Illawarra citizens to familiarise themselves with the proposal and to get behind the labour council and Shellharbour and Kiama communities in opposing the leasing off of any part of Killalea to private enterprise.
Bob Harrison is a former waterside worker, mayor of Shellharbour and state member for Kiama and is now retired.
Illawarra Mercury - 6 June 2007 (Page 24)
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