Throughout 2018 and 2019 my office worked alongside local residents and numerous community organisations to save Mt Coot-tha from the LNP Council’s zipline, a poorly designed commercial development that would have permanently privatised this precious place.
Council backed down after a record-breaking 3,500 submissions from residents, alongside a huge amount of community pressure including events, direct lobbying and media attention.
While this is a huge win for people power, this project demonstrated how broken our planning and local government systems are when it comes to community consultation. Council didn’t ask residents what they thought before committing to the proposal, and when presented with overwhelming opposition, they said it didn’t matter how many people objected. Council was eventually forced to back down in the face of a court challenge by local legends, the Mt Coot-tha Protection Alliance, and the real prospect they’d lose votes in the 2020 election.
Protecting Mt Coot-tha in the long term
The ziplines campaign demonstrated just how precious Mt Coot-tha is to locals and visitors alike. I am committed to ensuring the protection and preservation of the mountain for generations to come. This means keeping Mt Coot-tha free from profit-driven developments, maintaining the much loved Botanic Gardens, protecting this important urban habitat, closing and rehabilitating the quarry, and ensuring the community is properly consulted on the long term protection of the mountain.
In October 2019 I co-hosted a community meeting with the Mt Coot-tha Protection Alliance on the future of the Mt Coot-tha Quarry. More than 100 locals heard from experts and workshopped ideas for the future of the site. It’s clear that residents want to see the quarry closed and rehabilitated as soon as possible.
You can read a detailed report on the outcomes of our community forum here.
Find out more and sign my petition for urgent closure and rehab of the quarry here.