News & Events
Check the events calendar below to see any upcoming GMAN or regional events. Our latest newsletter is
hot off the press - Spring 2016
FREE GUIDED WALK
Beerburrum Adopt a Digger Exhibition
Soldiers Settlers Walk
Uncommon or rare wildflowers
Local history and scenic mountain views
Guided commentary
Easy to moderate 2 hour 7 km return walk suited to most adults and accompanied children
Relatively level bush walking environment
Bring water, sunscreen, mossie repellent, hats and comfortable shoes
When: Sunday 6th, November,
6.45am from Beerburrum
School for 7 am start
More information and registration:
Email : bobgwenm@bigpond.com
Proudly brought to you by GMAN
Keeping Koalas in food
Our sub-committee has been working tirelessly to find a new site. Sunshine Coast Council has nominated Pinelands Drive Park at Beerwah as a suitable site. The park is largely undeveloped and has the potential to become a valuable resource for our wildlife carers.
GMAN had a very successful meeting with the local residents at Pinelands Drive on November 19.
STOP HALL'S CREEK!
The recent public information forum held in Caloundra was well attended by a couple of hundred people who heard several speakers including Mayor Jamieson, Ministers Andrew Powell and McArdle, a town planning expert and representatives from Stocklands and OSCAR as well as an environmental expert with particular knowledge of the Pumicestone Passage. Several GMAN members attended the forum and participated in the interesting Q and A session at the end of the evening.
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Following this forum and further discussions with SCEC and others, GMAN has taken a stand to support campaigns to Stop Halls Creek from development. Why have we done this? There are several reasons and briefly they include the following concerns:·
The Sunshine Coast community have previously rejected attempts to develop this area, and these rejections were heard and endorsed by our Council. Yet here we are again with the State Government (and the developer Stocklands) putting pressure on us to change our minds. So they have now painted ratepayers into a corner giving the community the choice between Halls Creek and Beerwah East. How many times do we have to tell them ‘No’ to Halls Creek before we are heard?·
- Halls Creek, if developed, will be the approximate size of Bundaberg, in other words a substantial city on its own. And it would sit alongside a considerable length of the Pumicestone Passage. This body of water is already in trouble and its water quality report card is gradually getting worse or at best not improving. Listed as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International, it supports about 350 different species of birds including migratory waders and shorebirds. This is in addition to dugongs, turtles etc. You can imagine what the impact of another 100,000 living on its shoreline will be. And that development would be following its northern neighbour, Caloundra South, a 50,000 population development already approved.·
- Another 16 to 25 kilometres of what is left of the interurban break between Caloundra South and Moreton Shire populations would disappear. Now it’s really looking like the future for our children and grandchildren could be an endless city from Noosa to Tweed Heads. Is this what we want for them?
- How would you rate the capacity of our road and rail transport systems at the moment? Are they good enough to cope with current loads let alone huge population increases like those approved or proposed? Do we have enough water? Are other essential infrastructure items being funded and planned for? GMAN doesn’t have any evidence to say ‘yes’ to any of these questions.·
- Whether you moved to the Sunshine Coast from elsewhere or were born and raised here, there is a good chance that, amongst the reasons you have stayed, is the lifestyle, character and natural environment which this place stills offers. So now imagine what impact another 100,000 neighbours in Halls Creek are going have on how we live,work and play.
So GMAN would like to get messages to our local, state and federal representatives that this proposal is not acceptable. Watch this website, the GMAN Face Book page, the Stophallscreek Facebook page and our local Glasshouse Country News for further developments in this campaign. This campaign will be encouraging you to get your families, friends, neighbours, workmates and businesses to let the politicians who represent us know that the community intends to STOP HALLS CREEK!
If you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you, so give a committee member a call, email or a note to have your say. You could also attend one of the Halls Creek Information Sessions running from 10am to 12 noon at the following libraries, and fill out the survey handed out at these sessions:
Caloundra: August 25, September 1, 8, 22, 29
Beerwah: August 21, September 4, 11, 18, 25
