Revealed: The truth behind $10 million of City ratepayer money spent on Springbrook estate
The mystery behind the City spending $10 million on buying a property next to the planned cableway can finally be revealed.
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The mystery behind the City spending $10 million on buying a property near the planned cableway can finally be revealed. Neither the land or the gondola are actually linked.
Previous media reporting suggested the Eaglemont Estate, a 63.17ha site next to the Springbrook national park, could become “potentially a landing spot” for the cableway.
But details of a confidential City report, where officers briefed councillors in a closed session on the site buy-up, show a cableway was never part of a bigger picture tourism pitch.
The property was being bought because it aligned with the council’s nature tourism program.
Located at its closest point about 600 metres from the Purling Brook Falls, it would add to much needed parking and land for the rural fire brigade and State Emergency Services.
The site was well suited for “eco-resort cabins, tourist parks, a function-event facility and either a restaurant or shop” to expand the mountain’s hospitality offerings, officers said.
“Council has already endorsed investigation of one nature-based tourism project at Springbrook – the Cableway. That said, it is important to note that the subject property would not provide a landing point for the Cableway, but would rather complement the development of a Cableway within Springbrook,” officers said.
An aerial photograph shows the site divided into five lots. A residential house which contains 13 beds and a tennis court on one, another has a home with a sheds and a pool. There are wholesale nursery sheds.
The graphic shows that if a cableway was to land at the estate, the gondolas would cross over many houses and possibly the Springbrook State School.
Your columnist approached area councillor Glenn Tozer who believes Eaglemont “lacks the necessary efficient accessibility, and community amenity” for a cableway.
“On this site, Cableway infrastructure is not envisioned or really appropriate. The Eaglemont report notes that,” he says
“Eaglemont Estate needs a masterplan in consultation with both those who live at Springbrook and more broadly across the Gold Coast.”
Mr Tozer suggests Eaglemont could provide much needed accommodation and parking along with alternative tourism options like unique gardens and parkland, First Nations education or even a science centre.
Officers in their briefing said the Springbrook Centenary Parklands cannot accommodate all the community services like the rural fire brigade on a three-quarter hectare site. The site could be a landing spot for those volunteers and their trucks.
Purling Brook Falls has only 78 car parks. Overflow parking on weekends is costing ratepayers as council workers repair nearby grassed areas.
Unlike a gondola, Eaglemont does not require Aboriginal cultural assessment.
This on the surface, without any link to a gondola, appears a smart use of ratepayer money.
The property will widen the City’s narrow nature-based base, about to be bolstered by a new glamping project in the Numinbah Valley and a planned tourist park at Natural Bridge.
Importantly, given the real obstacles in the City pursuing a cableway, there is no need to green light the gondola for this City property to be a future tourism success story.
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