Community & Business
20 July, 2023
Last ditch effort to save rail trail
THE need to preserve Atherton’s Rail Trail has reared its head again, with Tablelands Mayor Rod Marti and two other councillors attempting to halt a management plan that will explore options to allow businesses operating within the Tolga Industrial Estate to expand their properties.
THE need to preserve Atherton’s Rail Trail has reared its head again, with Tablelands Mayor Rod Marti and two other councillors attempting to halt a management plan that will explore options to allow businesses operating within the Tolga Industrial Estate to expand their properties.
Council agreed to developing the strategy at its February meeting in response to requests from landholders over the past five years to extend their properties within the Rail Trail reserve, and after a proposal to plant trees along the trail was rejected.
But when a report came to council detailing how the strategy would be developed at the end of June, Mayor Marti made an impassioned plea to councillors to stop the process.
“I can’t support this motion. I strongly urge councillors not to support this motion. This is not in our interest,” he said.
“My view is that it’s not in the community’s interests to cut up the rail trail. The rail trail belongs to every Queenslander. It should not be made available to those property owners that boundary with it by the council.
“While other councils throughout the country highly value their rail corridors for the public amenity they bring, the TRC reduces them to a potential land acquisition for a limited few.
“This is just not in the community’s interest – it doesn’t pass the community litmus test – it doesn’t pass the pub test.
“I strongly recommend to every councillor that we don’t continue on this pathway we're on.”
Cr Dave Bilney joined the Mayor in his stance.
“To be consistent with my views expressed at the council meeting in February, I do not support the project or any potential further incision of rail trail land,” he said.
“I hold the view that it’s a bit of a waste of council resources at the moment with no measurable benefit for the community in general.
“The rail trail is a community asset and one that should be protected for future generations to enjoy.”
But Deputy Mayor Cr Kevin Cardew said the matter was about more than the rail trail use, saying stormwater issues affecting the industrial estate had been left to fester under successive councils.
“The stormwater out there is horrendous – it’s been identified (as a problem) for a long time and this council, and previous councils, haven’t done a thing about it,” he said.
“It’s flooding people’s businesses - when we get a heavy rain events, water is going through industrial sheds out there affecting people’s businesses.”
Crs David Clifton and Peter Hodge also backed the plan being developed so that businesses at the estate had certainty about whether they could expand their footprint, and the community could have a say in the use of the rail trail.
“What we do know is that the rail corridor was, in fact, an industrial zone and the forefathers of this community obviously planned to put an industrial area there adjacent to the major transport corridor of that time,” Cr Clifton said.
“So, the rail trail is not sacred community ground – it’s something we may or may not use according to our community’s wants and desires.
“The idea of this report is to give all people in our community a deliberate say about the circumstances of the rail trail should be in the future.”
Cr Bernie Wilce weighed into the debate, saying the management plan was needed to settle the matter.
“It could turn out that in September .... that it’s realised that it’s impossible to even consider the expansion of (businesses), depending on the advice or recommendations from TMR but we can’t just leave it sit hanging,” he said.
“Whether it’s to progress this project or to put it to bed, we have got to have something in front of us that gives us a strategy and a direction.”
Cr Peter Hodge said he wanted to make sure that the plan to be presented to council in September would provide all the information council and landholders needed to go forward.
“The intent of the (February) resolution was to negotiate with those landholders who have had many discussions (about expanding) and I want to make sure we are having those discussions and were in a position to say what it will cost and so on so they can take up the land,” he said.
Infrastructure general manager Mark Vis said the plan would set out to identify what uses the land should be reserved for including the existing rail trail, infrastructure such as stormwater and sewerage mains, and the potential expansion of existing industrial properties.
“Once we have got a clearer picture, we will be consulting with business owners around there to make it clear what we believe is possible and getting their feedback on that, and we would also be consulting through the Rail Trail Advisory Committee and other interested parties as well,” he said.
Council endorsed the management plan, with Crs Marti, Bilney and Haydon voting against it.
