Gold Coast Flashback: The battle for The Spit

BACK in 2012 soon after the council election, a major player from Singapore revealed cruise ship terminal plans for the Gold Coast,

Southport Seaway construction at the Spit. Taken 03/01/85.

DEVELOPMENT on the Spit is back in the headlines again this week as ASF Consortium revealed its plans for a 5ha parcel of land next to Sea World.

The $3 billion project is the latest salvo in the current battle over development in the area stretching back nearly five years to the final days of the 2012 council election.

Just two days before the poll, mayor frontrunner announced a bid to build a $30 million cruise ship terminal at The Spit in his first term.

The Broadwater, The Spit and Sea World from the air.

He unveiled plans to build the terminal by 2014 with the financial support of then-Premier Campbell Newman. Which was to be completed in 30 months, would likely be positioned off the southern seawall and include four “floating’’ sections.

Under Cr Tate’s financial model, the State Government was to contribute $15 million with the council adding $10 million. An additional $5 million would be set aside for contingency costs.

The Gold Coast City Council would obtain a lease on Crown land and operate the facility, cashing in on any financial return under that plan.

Following his election Cr Tate and the Newman Government began talks about how to make the dream a reality.

The first sign of big plans came in July that year when Singapore company Sembawang put forward plans for a $4.9 billion cruise ship terminal and resort development on Wavebreak Island.

The $4.9 billion dollar cruise ship proposal for Wavebreak Island unveiled by Sembawang of Singapore came to nought.

Under those plans, the terminal was to be capable of docking two 300m luxury ships, or up to four smaller vessels.

A new artificial island was to be built adjacent to Wavebreak to house the bulk of the masterplanned residential and tourist community.

Beyond a six-star, 1500-room resort, the precinct was to include a casino, an aquarium, shops, a theatre, cultural centre and commercial space.

Boaties would have been able to pull up to a 400-berth marina and there would have been berths for up to 12 superyachts, with a bridge built from the mainland to the islands, giving people without boats access to Wavebreak for the first time.

But the project copped significant criticism from locals as well as Cr Tate who would not back a casino on the site.

Sembawang pulled out of the Coast market by the end of 2012, but Cr Tate said he was unfazed by its failure, saying he expected at least nine other proposals to come out of the woodwork.

The Mayor and the State Government launched the Broadwater Marine Project process in December 2012 to determine which developer would get to building the area.

It was called at the time the biggest land release in a generation.

ASF Consortium was named the possible preferred proponent in February 2014 with the hopes of developing Wavebreak Island and the northern Spit.