Legal eagle Mark Le Grand addresses a group aiming to stop Toondah Harbour project

Former crime fighter and lawyer Mark Le Grand will speak on Saturday at a fundraiser for a small non-profit group aiming to stop the $1.4 billion Toondah Harbour project at Cleveland

Illustration of Mark Le Grand by Brett Lethbridge

ONE of Queensland’s most formidable crime fighters has agreed to speak to a small non-profit outfit aiming to stop a $1.4 billion bay front project in Brisbane.

Retired legal eagle Mark Le Grand, who spent 10 years as an investigations director of the Criminal Justice Commission, will address a fundraising dinner Saturday night for Redlands2030.

The group is vehemently opposed to the Toondah Harbour redevelopment scheme proposed for a 67ha spread on the Cleveland waterfront.

The long-stalled plan by Rich List developer Lang Walker and his Walker Corp would see up to 3600 new homes, a ferry terminal, a marina for up to 400 vessels and a retail precinct rolled out in stages over 20 years.

But critics contend the dredging and reclamation of mudflats needed for the project would decimate protected areas now used by endangered migratory shorebirds.

A revised and supposedly more environmentally-friendly version of the project wheeled out earlier this year failed to win over detractors.

Oddly enough, Le Grand told City Beat yesterday that he knew virtually nothing about the Toondah Harbour scheme – even though it has been mooted since 2014 and he lives next door in Raby Bay. As a result, he said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on its merits.

So why did he agree to speak to the sold-out function at the Redlands Baseball Club about his near 50-year career in the law and law enforcement?

It turns he got an invite from a long-time mate Toni Bowler, a former Redland City Councillor and passionate opponent of the project.

Le Grand retired last year after a career that included stints on the board of the National Crime Authority and as a former Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions for the commonwealth. He also assisted several royal commissions.

HARMONISING GROUP

OUR item about the dozen or so old blokes in Brisbane who make up The Harmony Club generated a bit of a stir this week.

The gents, who were kicked out of both Tattersall’s Club and the Queensland Club have apparently found a new home for their long lunches.

City Beat spies tell us they now plan to gather every month or so at the Pig ‘N’ Whistle pub at Riverside Centre.

Meanwhile, one-time Harmony Club member Jules Guerassimoff, the former rugby great, has been variously spotted at other watering holes around town including Souths Rugby Union Club and the Red Lion Hotel at Moorooka.

WHAT THE…?

THE gang at the Wagners Group warehouse in Townsville had an eye-rolling “what the…?’’ moment when they arrived at work this week.

Greenies with the group “Frontline Action On Coal’’ had found two sign-toting volunteers to sit atop tripods at the front gates as part of their ongoing campaign against Adani’s planned Carmichael mega-mine.

They weren’t just clad in civilian gear either.

No, the protesters were dressed up as mythical marine beings, Ursula the sea witch and Triton, the queen of the oceans, in what was described as “a dramatic show of sea creaturely resistance’’.

Sure, Triton was a bloke in Greek mythology but the greenies tweaked that fact so their narrative could become “an ecofeminist reconstruction of the popular children’s story The Little Mermaid’’.

We are not making this up.

They want Wagners and other contractors to sever all ties with Adani and vowed to keep up the campaign “until their ocean home is safe’’ from global warming made worse by burning coal.

Looks like they might be there for a while.