The plight of a Mullum resident has touched the hearts and injustice buttons of people far and wide who feel that a requirement that she repaint her house a heritage colour and possibly pay a fine, not only ridiculous but also petty. Rous County Council virtual mockup of former Dunoon Dam proposal.
Three pro-dam councillors have announced a rescission motion to be discussed at the next Rous County Council meeting, seeking to overturn the recent decision to abandon the Dunoon Dam.
Crs Sharon Cadwallader, Robert Mustow and Sandra Humphrys have lodged the motion, which relates to the disposal of council-owned land in the dam area.
Hans Lovejoy, editor
Almost every Council meeting throws up hard decisions that must be courageously tackled, such as resolving competing community uses of public land.
At last Thursday’s Council meeting, councillors voted to proceed with plans for a pump track, or a BMX track, at the Linda Vidler Memorial Parklands, located in Suffolk Park.
Yet the chamber heard the decision comes without an adopted masterplan for the area, although a plan of management (PoM) was in place.
The chamber also heard additional drainage and infill works were also needed, no matter what occurs on the site.
The community gardens, which is also located in the park, said they were against, while the local soccer club were also vying for use. The associated staff report for the project said ‘conflicting demands’ for the space also included Arakwal interests.
We ve scraped, we ve replenished and we ve built sea walls. Beaches can and do take care of themselves if we let them be, with a little helping hand after every storm. Why are we supporting the enemies of the healthy resilient beach rather than the beach itself? Have we gone quite mad? Cr Hackett said instead of planning to reinforce the shoreline along part of the coast the community should be planning for retreat from the shore. We don t have to retreat now, she said. We can retreat in 50 years now if we do the right thing but at some stage we have to retreat.
Rous County Council meeting yesterday. Zoom screenshot.
With numbers locked yesterday, the Chair of Rous County Council (RCC), Keith Williams, voted to prevent the contentious Dunoon Dam project proceeding, at a not-so ordinary Rous meeting in Lismore.
The meeting began with deputations against the dam from Duncan Dey, Bianca Urbana and Cindy Roberts, who was representing the Widjabul Wyabul traditional owners of the affected area, between Dunoon and The Channon.
Ms Roberts said, ‘As we gather together, and acknowledge Nguthunggali Ngadjanggali our creator, I welcome all my ancestors into this meeting today.
‘In regard to this proposal, from 1995 up until 2020 Rous was consulting with individuals alone, she said. ‘And some of those people were not the right people of the land to even be at the table having this discussion.
UPDATE, 3.30pm: ROUS County Council has decided to scrap the idea of a Dunoon Dam from its Water Future Plan 2060. After a last-minute motion by Lismore councillor Vanessa Ekins, councillors decided to scrap the 50GL dam in Dunoon. Instead of the dam, the motion focused on changing the focus of the plan to the upgrade of the Marom Creek Water Treatment Plant and the use of new underground water from the Alstonville area for the first ten years, to develop technology to allow for direct and indirect potable reuse of water. It s independent of rainfall and constant supply, this is a viable option, Cr Ekins said.