Tourist Resort Plan Rejected
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday September 27, 1988
BRISBANE: Queensland Cabinet rejected yesterday a $122 million development plan for Lindeman Island in the Whitsunday group.
"Any major expansion of the present resort will have to be confined to the existing perpetual lease of almost 70 hectares outside the national park," the Minister for Tourism and the Member for Whitsunday, Mr Geoff Muntz, said.
However, Lindeman Island Ltd was granted a 30-year lease over 60 hectares of parkland in the south-west of the island's national park, which will be used to upgrade the resort's nine-hole golf course to an international-standard 18-hole course.
Mr Muntz said the land was degraded national park.
The extra nine golf holes will be built next to the company's present 69-hectare block where 400 accommodation units also will be built.
Lindeman Island Ltd recently spent $22 million to upgrade its resort at Home Beach to international standard.
The Opposition spokesman on the environment, Mr Pat Comben, said last night: "The Minister has again shown that when there is any conflict between his national park responsibilities and his tourism responsibilities, national parks will lose."
The ALP would fight the decision as hard as it fought the 1986 Lindeman Island "sell-off".
© 1988 Sydney Morning Herald
