Heartbreak headland: Letters from residents on saving the Gold Coast’s best ocean view
The experience of sitting in your car at Burleigh Headland, where you can breathe in that wide-screen cinema view across the blue of Pacific Ocean to the Surfers Paradise skyline, is under threat. These are the must-read letters of protest sent to council by locals.
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THE experience of sitting in your car at Burleigh Headland, where you can breathe in that wide-screen cinema view across the blue of Pacific Ocean to the Surfers Paradise skyline, could be lost.
As part of a new master plan, the council will consider removing the car park for a toilet and grassed area. Older folk are privately writing letters of protest. You must read them.
Bruce is 90, takes his regular seat at a coffee shop in Connor Street where Judy, a fellow resident, turns on her computer laptop, finds the link to council’s Have Your Say platform.
She starts typing as Bruce tells her how he and his wife Joy arrived from Sydney in 2003 and began walking the beach each day.
“As we got older we started walking up Burleigh hill to sit on the seat on the way up,” Bruce says.
“She eventually suffered with Alzheimers and I became her carer.
“We used to watch the ocean and the board riders and walk back home as our exercise for the day until she became unable to do so and went into a home.
“She eventually passed away. Her ashes are now in the ocean and I used to walk to say hello to her almost every day and sit on the seat until a few years ago.”
Bruce knows the only way up the hill now is for him to drive.
“I find it stressful and difficult to breathe when I try to walk up the hill,” he says. Judy continues typing.
“I might stay there for half an hour to say hello to my lovely wife Joy in my mind and sometimes I actually talk to her from the comfort of my car,” he says.
“There is no-one to drop me off for half an hour to do this beautiful and important ritual which keeps me going. I don’t want to sit in the cold, the heat, the rain or any other weather conditions to honour may wife in this special and respectful way.”
Bruce knows something else. So does Judy.
“I see a lot of the same people up there sitting in their cars. Maybe they are doing the same as me,” he says.
Their friend Lyn, another of the coffee shop regulars, took her husband Norm up to the headland in the last six months of his life, to sit in their car and find some peace.
Bruce continues to talk, Judy keeps typing. “Please don’t take away that car park which gives great joy to everyone, not just the people with greater mobility,” he says.
“There is still plenty of room up there for us all. If you take away the car park, you take away inclusiveness.”
Judy writes her own letter. “By keeping the car park those in cars will go in any weather and sit in their vehicles to watch the storms and the big waves,” she writes.
“This has been a great enjoyment to people throughout the decades that the car park has been there. Our senior citizens from residential care facilities who use this look out on a regular basis because of its easy access to the picnic table will not be able to visit any more. It will be too challenging and unsafe for the elderly to wait unsupervised while their driver or carer drops them off to go looking for parking. They also would not be able to sit on the grass because of their limited mobility.”
These letters are proof that if a car park is removed, our oldest in the community will be removed with it.
Older voices are not often heard in a largely online debate.
They need to be this time around. Please council, this is my letter. Please keep these vehicle spaces, please keep these lasting views and memories of their loved ones.
PREVIOUSLY: How council will revamp Burleigh headland and remove car parking
NEW designs reveal how one of the Gold Coast’s most iconic beach viewing areas — the Burleigh headland — will be reduced to traffic.
Concerned residents who oppose the changes have contacted the Bulletin after viewing the updated artist impressions released by council.
When the Bulletin broke the story last month about the proposal to remove car parking on the headland and replace it with a toilet and grassed areas, some readers described it as “ludicrous”.
Only 29 per cent of people responding to the newspaper’s survey supported it, and those opposed included seniors and residents who were physically impaired, requiring a bus trip to take in the magnificent views north to Surfers Paradise.
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The changes show the existing car parks would be replaced by a short term loading zone and an “equitable access car park zone”. The aim is to create a “headland celebration space”.
Details released on the Burleigh Heads Placing Making Plan show:
* Goodwin Terrace will have traffic calming and improved pedestrian crossings. Additional car parking is placed down from the headland at Rudd Park. Garden beds have been moved to provide increased pedestrian circulation area. Shade structures would be installed above some existing seats.
* James Street will boast a new formal mid-block pedestrian crossing with build outs to ensure safe, equitable all access street crossing. Other improvements include an “all weather arbour with functional art” along with feature lighting, trees and subtropical planting.
* The Esplanade will see street tree planting on western side for shade, kerb extensions and street print to increase pedestrian amenity in the car park. There will be some changes to onstreet parking.
* Lower Gold Coast Highway will see changes including relocating the pedestrian crossing further from West Burleigh Road corner. There will be new street trees and where possible footpaths widened to minimum 1.5m.
Mayor Tom Tate said feedback would influence the direction of the Burleigh Heads Place Making Plan.
“As the Gold Coast continues to grow at one of the fastest rates in Australia, the city is committed to ensuring our centres continue to meet the lifestyle and commercial needs of our residents and businesses,” he said.
“Burleigh Heads is a beloved part of our city and we want to ensure we strike the right balance between functionality and retaining the area’s iconic identity in a post-light rail Burleigh Heads.
“From street artwork, improved lighting to additional shading and seating areas, we’re seeking your input on what projects should be delivered to improve enhance the amenity of Burleigh’s village character.
“Our draft concepts will also explore the possibility of changing existing carparking arrangements so we can open up more green space for the public.
“I want to reassure the local community there will be no net loss to car parking in the area, any proposed projects are concept only and we want to ensure the locals have been fully consulted before any changes are determined,” said Mayor Tate.
Council is seeking input from residents until May 19.
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