Prioritising greed
I agree whole heartedly with Syl Mod regarding the proposed development. 

I do not believe it’s necessary or wanted. Same goes for all the development around town.

Council have ruined Hervey Bay. 

Our hospital system is a nightmare. 

The town has just turned into a money making racket and all I see is greed, not the beautiful seaside town, it once was.

Prioritise the needs of the area, well said Syl.

Noelenne Frazer

So many questions

In response to the letter from Syl Mod about the emergency department at Hervey Bay Hospital. 

Everyone says this is not under Council control but Government.

The numbers allowed to move to Hervey Bay when there is not the infrastructure to accommodate them is under their control.

Yes, the more buildings they allow mean more rates for the Council, but at what cost to the residents already living here? 

Millionaires Playground, another letter in your paper, also stated all the things that are wrong with this continued development. 

So many unanswered questions from developers and the Council.  

The developers and others say what a wonderful thing this is going to be when finished but no mention of at what cost while being built. 

The impact it will have on residents living nearby, and nearby businesses affected by the noise from the building site. 

Where are all the workers going to live or park because many will be brought in for this construction?

What environmental issues will arise from going underground for the four levels of carparks and the high rises towering over the tree line affect our sea life. 

Also, in Council flood maps this development has three different levels of flooding over the area involved where will all the water go and can our drains cope with it?

So far all unanswered by Council and developers. 

Delma Taylor

Thank you Cancer Care Service

The 20th of May each year is International Clinical Trials Day, and I would like to say thanks to the staff at Cancer Care Service - Hervey Bay, for their ongoing commitment to improving treatments 
and outcomes for people diagnosed with breast cancer, through their participation in the Breast Cancer Trials research program.

More than 20,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer across Australia this year alone. That is 54 women per day. 

But while we still have a long way to go before we have a cure for every person, more women are surviving this disease than ever before.

Over the past three decades survival rates for breast cancer have increased by more than 30% and clinical trials research has made a significant contribution to this.

My team and I at Breast Cancer Trials would like to extend our deepest thanks. 

We would not have been able to achieve what we have without you, and we look forward to what will be achieved together in the years to come.

Soozy J Smith PhD, Breast Cancer Trials

Useless holiday

You are right, it’s useless holiday (Fraser Coast Show Holiday sic).

I would rather work; it costs too much money.

I have a business in Hervey Bay and it costs far too much to be closed on a Friday.

Thanks for mentioning it.

Christa

Build it in Bargara

The demographer on the TV news this week has no idea how a country kids thinks. 

Yet Glenn Winney agreed with him saying we need to keep the young here when finishing school. 

Most kids just want to get away go to the city after growing up in small towns as happened years ago.

That means further training university nursing jobs. Many love that lifestyle but when married and children often return in their 30s. 

Hervey Bay is a retirement town and the jobs created around us are for that younger generation mostly providing enormous opportunities for them and after the razzle dazzle frustrating travel times it’s bliss in the country. 

You’re home in the summer evenings and can be on the beach or your favourite sport in minutes. 

The singles will travel for entertainment or weekends easily as they have the money. 

Trying to open  night clubs etc is a very expensive business and has been tried numerous times in the past. 

The bay is not ever going to be like Surfers; it’s a family type beach drawing tourists who are escaping their normal lives. 

Mr Cuda and his developer friends should read this week’s news re Bargara attracting rich Sydneysiders and going to be the new Noosa and build his monstrosity there. 

They love the surf beaches simple as that. 

J. French- Pt Vernon

Can you hear the kookaburras? 

In the last issue, the editor asks whether the “economic impact” is enough of a case to abolish the FC Show holiday because so many locals leave town and don’t spend their money here. (Gee, wonder why these pesky locals aren’t hanging around.) 

A few pages later a “puff piece”, written, of course, by the developer, claims that the proposed Esplanade resort “has a plan to showcase environmental excellence” (which reads 
like a typical “green wash”) and attract “high spending tourists,” while also claiming, remarkably, that this development will help “ease pressure on the Hervey Bay housing market,” which is not explained. 

(Gee, will it also reduce congestion and youth crime and cure haemorrhoids? Surely these new high wealth folks will make up for the locals getting out of town on a long weekend, won’t they?) 

Their proposed measures will not prevent or fix the potential (probable) damage s outlined in the article a few weeks ago laying out the science behind the projected damage, but hey, we’ll get some cool lighting.

So, it seems that all this new development, including the proposed Esplanade Eyesore, is not enough after all, because our local economy, according to the editor, is not robust enough to allow for HB locals to get out of town when one of the few local attractions—and a couple of days off—are scheduled. 

And the implication of “needing” this new development to attract wealthy tourists must be because the current “low wealth” tourists are simply not spending enough here, which is why locals should be staying here when an event is going on. 

So, we have an affordability crisis and environmental impact that will be helped by building a high-rise luxury resort, and our fragile economy here in the Bay that will be fixed if locals don’t go elsewhere during Show Weekend. Hmmmm.  

Does something smell fishy here? These specious appeals to false economics reveals the true rationale for unchecked growth that’s ruining this town:  greed. Can you hear the kookaburras?

Z. West