SkylinQ: Plan to build 24km cableway over the Southport Broadwater

A $220m, 24km cableway running from Southport to Sanctuary Cove via The Spit and South Stradbroke Island was pitched to the state government in an idea which dropped jaws.

The push for new tourism infrastructure never goes away, with many ideas popping up again and again across the decades.

A cableway has long been the white whale for many business figures who have hoped to leave their mark on the city.

This year marks a decade since one of the most unusual and ambitious ideas was put forward – A $220m, 24km cableway running from Southport to Sanctuary Cove via The Spit and South Stradbroke Island.

The brainchild of businessman Russell Cousins, Skylinq was submitted to the state government in early 2014 for consideration.

The Broadwater where Skylinq was proposed. Picture Mike Batterham

Mr Cousins claimed at the time the project would have “full funding from UK financiers” and be ready to take its first passengers by late 2017

“The plan calls for nine stations with the first near a light rail station in Southport. Other stations would be at Marina Mirage, the surf beach on Stradbroke Island and Couran Cove. Future stages could extend along the beachfront to Surfers Paradise and from Sanctuary Cove to Coomera,” the Bulletin reported at the time.

“Each gondola would carry eight people and would solve some of the Spit traffic problems”.

It came within a handful of weeks of the state government unveiling its pick of ASF Consortium to build its cruise ship terminal at the Spit.

The project received an unenthused response from the Newman Government and did not get a look in after Labor came to power in 2015.

It wasn’t the first attempt to build such a project.

Naturelink, announced in 1998, was the brainchild of former Gold Coast mayor Ray Stevens and businessman Terry Morris and had a targeted opening date of early 2000.

The proposed Naturelink

The 11km tourist attraction was to run from Mudgeeraba to the rainforest of Springbrook and was to be the world’s longest.

Under the proposals, 100 gondolas were to be used on the cableway, providing panoramic views form just above the tree line over the Hinze Dam catchment area.

The cable cars were to travel from an area just west of Mudgeeraba, near the Boomerang Farm golf course, to Springbrook and the Purling Brook Falls.

The project was to mirror the successful Skyrail cableway which links Cairns to Kuranda.

Ray Stevens at Springbrook in 1999.

The scheme already had the support of the local tourism industry and the Borbidge Government, subject to appropriate environmental requirements.

“You will have a magnificent view back towards the Coast showing all the high rises, the waterways and the beaches and then heading west you will cover some magnificent rainforest before arriving adjacent to the Purling Brook Falls,” Mr Stevens said.

“There is virtually no environmental impact with these types of cableways as the Cairns experience has shown.

“It is one of the most effective ways of educating the public about the environmental and our natural assets.

“Cableways are quiet, ¬pollution-free, only require a footprint in sensitive areas and provide a unique experience for passengers.”

Environmental groups immediately expressed their outrage.

Protests stretched on into the year 2000 when the project was finally canned after an aggressive campaign from Hinterland residents and environmental groups who argued the tourist attraction would cause severe damage to the Hinterland.

Mr Stevens, later a State MP, revived the project in 2014 but it was shelved again the following year after the Palaszczuk Government was elected and showed no interest.