Opinion: Tony Cochrane hasn’t made his mind up about the Spit, but reckons the CST is a good way to go

IT’S been suggested we turn The Spit into our own ‘Central Park’. But that doesn’t fit the bill — NYC’s Central Park is entirely man-made, is full of roads and commercial enterprises from ice rinks to a zoo. Now Tony Cochrane weighs into The Spit debate.

FRIDAY was a big day for us on the Gold Coast.

Why you ask?

The State Government released their “vision statement” for The Spit. Most concerning in that sentence is the word “their”. But let’s get to that in a moment.

Now a lot of rubbish is written about The Spit. So, let’s start by getting a few facts down.

It is not a special “heritage” or other site; it’s largely man-made, it’s not a pristine wilderness location, massive parts of it have been either an eyesore or used by people to freeload as their casual living or camping abode for ages and it already contains several significant commercial and recreational facilities — some stunning, some bloody awful!

Gold Coast Cruise ship concept terminal plans produced by BDO Architects

As a community we have been discussing what or how to do with it for decades.

It has even been suggested to turn it into Central Park — I assume they mean Central Park as in New Your City. Well that’s a place I know well, and it doesn’t fit the bill.

Here is a quick guide to that park. It is entirely man made, even the lakes. It is designed to give open space in a city that has more than 2.9 million apartments and almost no homes with outdoor spaces, unless you’re a zillionaire — the Park as they call it, is critical to their extremely limited access to open space. It contains lots of areas for sport, lots of roads, lots of commercial enterprises from ice rinks to a zoo and it is large — 840 acres. And it costs about $US65 million each year to run and operate.

So almost none of the criteria that fits life on the Gold Coast.

Proposed Gold Coast Cruise Ship Terminal

In case you missed it, one of the things we have an abundance of and for free is outdoor space — the beaches for a big start. But I digress, back to my story — our Spit! (operative word — “our”).

So, I don’t have a firm position on what The Spit should become. I’m still in part open-minded. Although please don’t think for a moment I don’t have an opinion; zero chance of that!

I do acknowledge it is a great piece of terra firma on the GC, it should be special, it must be self-funding (we don’t need to saddle the council with a new annual $65 million cost as above), it must have massive sections open to everyone and it’s got to end up with features that are unique to us; unlike Central Park, which clearly is very special to NYC but bears little of our necessities.

The sand pumping jetty at the Spit. Picture: Jules Ingall.

As a community though we find ourselves awaiting some Brisbane bureaucrat, who might be a great guy, telling and laying out what we need and want here. Why — surely as it is clearly in our back yard we (and I mean council and residents) should have the majority of the say.

So as a city approaching 650,000 residents, the sixth largest in Australia, when do we get to decide what and how we want such an important infrastructure piece of our city to look like? Why aren’t our local politicians screaming blue murder (and if you are then it’s not screaming, it’s too bloody quiet, screaming is loud)! This should be our decision, not bloody Brisbane again (although thanks yet again for our Closing Ceremony).

Greenery at the Spit. Picture: Destination Gold Coast

Now I smell a big rat. It seems to me the long-mooted cruise ship terminal should be seriously considered in this. It just makes sense and we have been talking about it for 40-50 years. Clearly the vast majority of the whole of our city supports it — it’s been the subject of polls that overwhelmingly showed the majority are on board. The mayor couldn’t have been clearer in his last election that it was a cornerstone of what he thought the city needed — and he romped in with popular support.

We don’t really need a Central Park, writes Tony Cochrane. / AFP PHOTO / Don EMMERT

Is the State Government considering it, or is their wish to get every cruise boat to stop at their location in — guess where — Brisbane. And who wouldn’t want to jump off a cruise boat at their terminal in the heartland of a shitty river with an industrial wasteland surround — stunning, gorgeous! “What’s the next port honey?”

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The GC is the mecca of tourism — it makes good old-fashioned sense to have our own cruise ship terminal, just like we have an airport — it’s called tourism infrastructure. Build it and they will come. And folks whether you like it or not — we need them to come! It is our number one industry and we must grow it, develop it and learn to love it. A lot of our hardworking residents depend on it.

So, we have a potentially exciting and critical part of our great city at The Spit. Let’s make sure it is a stunning, brilliant and defining layout that is unique to our city and gives us some serious added tourism infrastructure that provides something special for our residents in open space, but also drives growth in its positioning of the city.

Please, it can’t be that hard? We need the silent majority to start speaking up and loudly, or we will get some second-rate Brisbane-defining God knows what here. Bugger that.