Palm Cove News

March 2005



Cairns Plans our future

SIX AND A HALF YEARS in the making, Cairns Plan was launched by Cairns City Council on 1st March.
Guiding the development of our city for the next 10 to 15 years, it can be seen on www.cairns.qld.gov.au
Parts of the plan that affect Palm Cove are quoted as follows:
Tourist accommodation and associated small scale retail and commercial facilities are intended to be located in proximity to the waterfront... These areas may also accommodate permanent residents...There is also the opportunity for development of tourist accommodation in several locations along the Captain Cook Highway...
There is potential for expansion of tourist accommodation in the south of Palm Cove....the remainder of the suburb should accommodate permament residents...
The following three paragraphs refer to the whole of Cairns Beaches.
It is intended that inter-suburban connector roads should be established as development of the remaining larger parcels of land takes place, Particularly to improve the efficiency of public transport...
The remaining coastal vegetation, foredunes and swales, together with riparian corridors, should be retained. Similarly, the hillslopes which provide such a dramatic backdrop to the district should be retained in their existing state...
Connectivity between the remaining vegetation in the Cairns Beaches should be achieved by providing links from the coast to the hillslopes and between coastal communities...
It is intended that pedestrian and bicycle links should be provided throughout the district, particularly along the coastline and waterways...

Xmas lights competition

THE BUSINESS section of Tourism Palm Cove's Christmas Lights Competition and its $1,000 prize was won by Apres Bar and Grill.
Shops and other establishments vied with each other in putting up the most and best lights.
Winners of the house section were Peta and Darren Still of 14 Sago St, Island View Estate who pocketed $500.
By the way, that young girl who played the carols so magnificently on the trumpet on Christmas Eve was Gabrielle Farrelly of Kewarra Beach. She overcame the sea breeze nicely.

 

Editorial

THE COUNCIL'S new plan for the next decade and a half is timely. Palm Cove, we are glad to say, should continue to be the great little place it has always been. It's times like this we can appreciate what a council really does. A council's not just a garbage collector, a waterworks, a road sweeper or any of those mundane things. It's not an earth-mover either, it's a parent who needs to remind us that the finer things are important.If it wasn't for the council, we'd probably destroy the riparian corridors (vegetation on waterway banks), and we'd do many other things we shouldn't. The council keeps us in line. We were glad to see that inter-suburban connector roads (read link roads) should be established "particularly to improve the efficiency of public transport."
If we don't have a link road between Palm Cove and Clifton Beach, a lot of people in the upcoming 60 hectare Thakral development in southern Palm Cove - holding as many as two or three thousand citizens - will probably receive less than a first-rate public transport service. The plans indicate the only entrance to the highway will be at a roundabout opposite the tropical zoo. Without a link road, people living in southern Palm Cove within half a kilometre of the Clifton Beach Shopping Centre will need to drive north to the Triton St roundabout, then west to the highway at tropical zoo, then south to Endeavour Rd, a distance of four kilometres. They'll certainly be unhappy about that!
If there are any accident blockages on the highway at Endeavour Rd, we will have more frustrating hold-ups like the traffic chaos we had two weeks ago at that intersection. Palm Cove needs more than the highway as an outlet. What about an emergency?
With a link road constructed, certain people will abhor the idea of increased traffic past their homes. Understandable, but when those same people bought or built their home and saw the big empty stretch of land at the ends of Linden St, Osterland St or Upolu Esplanade, they must have known traffic would come sooner or later.
Veivers Rd residents have found a two-metre high brick wall and trees work wonders against traffic noise.
What's a few more vehicles down Saxon St anyway? We in Terebra St have a constant procession past our door including tourist coaches, but as with the planes overhead we hardly hear them.
Why should Clifton Beach people who mistakenly believe they will be greatly inconvenienced cause anguish to the thousands who we believe will start to arrive in less than a year?
This newsletter says the link road should be implemented.

Letters to the Editor

TODAY'S LOVE LETTER

We have been to Palm Cove twice and fell in love with the place, so much so that we are getting married there this May. I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you how much I love reading your newsletter and seeing what is happening in the area.

Belinda Brown, Echuca, Vic.

DOG ATTACK

(We sent last month's edition and a note to the mayor.)

Yes, it was a disgraceful attack and I am sorry that it occurred. Having said that, we have to operate within the State laws and within Council local laws and our Animal Control Unit is working to sort the issue out.
I do appreciate your concern for Mike and we will do everything we can to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

Kevin Byrne, Mayor.

Park closures uproot grey nomads

YORKEY'S KNOB CARAVAN PARK has closed, Trinity Beach and Clifton Beach parks are closing, and it is rumoured two more northern beaches parks (not Palm Cove) will close in the next few years.
Why? No profits in parks, much bigger profits in apartments.
Grey nomads are people over 65 years in caravans and motorhomes who are repeat visitors, who prefer a beach site, and who stay about 50 days.
Palm Cove Caravan Park, the only council-owned park in Cairns which shows a profit, will surely come under pressure as grey nomads look for an alternative site.
Manager Doug Lennon said enquiries for the season have stepped up.
"But no, we won't be closing, only resiting opposite the jetty and next to the creek, and that's a few years off," he said.

Free film, food & fizz for kids

Palm Cove Surf Club is putting on another night for local kids and for them it's all free. The film will be a latest release, the food will be just what kids like, and the drinks will be soft.

It's at 6pm, Friday March 18th at the surf club's front landing. Parents are welcome to wait for their offspring in the bar and bistro where they can, if they like, partake of a drink and a meal at budget prices.

Enquiries Lawrence 4059 1244

BY THE WAY, that young girl who played the carols on the trumpet so magnificently on Christmas Eve was Gabrielle Farrelly of Kewarra Beach. She overcame the sea breeze nicely, don't you think?

 

Published by Jerry Dukes
52 Terebra St
Palm Cove 4879 QLD
Ph 4059 1610 Fax 4059 0058
Email : jgdukes@ozemail.com.au
On website : http://www.palmcove.net

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