Commercial luxury accommodation in conservation reserves incur high costs, causes environmental impacts, brings few additional visitors. Placing commercial developments in parks undercuts tourism services in neighbouring towns, where tourists would otherwise spend money. These resort proposals are being sold by Experience Co to Intrepid Travel, so this proposal is a land grab. Help stop the damage to precious pagoda landscapes, write to Premier Chris Minns.
What you can do:
Ask Premier Chris Minns if his legacy will be the protection of our national parks, or the damaging privatisation of them (goes to the Premier's webpage, write your letter off-line first to avoid silly mistakes)
Please also write to Intrepid asking them to reconsider whether they want their brand linked to the blighting of significant and rare near-pristine pagoda landscapes in a conservation reserve that should be protected. Write to Mr Brett Mitchell, Managing Director, Intrepid Travel mailto:brett.mitchell@intrepidtravel.com
The REF documents (at least look at some of the pictures - document pages 62 and 63, also page 29 - note the surrounding bushland is not degraded)
A slideshow graphically reveals the issues at stake with this resort proposal
Write to
The Hon Chris Minns
Premier of NSW
Object to the resorts proposed in internationally significant pagoda heritage in the Gardens of Stone SCA. https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/premier-of-nsw/contact-premier
Don't lease rare pagoda heritage in Gardens of Stone SCA for resort development
In your letter to Premier Chris Minns, express some of these concerns in your own words:
- I oppose commercial resorts in internationally significant and rare pagoda landscapes in a national park in waiting, the outstandingly diverse Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area
- Approval of the resort developments in sites of national heritage significance would set an Australian national park precedent for resort development, threatening other rare and scenic locations, like headlands or cliffs, or in heritage sites such as coastal rainforest
- The spectacular scenic beauty of essentially pristine and internationally rare platy pagoda landscapes will be degraded by building these resorts
- The development of the three resorts requires soil mounds to be hauled on too of bare sandstone rockplate to make greywater disposal work, and this will also bring in weeds and plant pathogens into these pristine pagoda landscapes
- The three proposed resorts benefit from the construction of a tax-payer funded multi-day walk that the future lessee has not paid for, giving Intrepid Travel a free handout they don’t deserve for their heritage damaging developments
- It's wrong that decisions on these leases are made in secret between Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and the lessee, without an opportunity for the public to review and comment on the draft lease
- I am disappointed that the proposed lease was sold by Experience Co to Intrepid Travel, making the three lease sites a speculative "land-grab" of globally recognised scenic beauty in this publicly owned park
- The National Parks and Wildlife Service, being the proponent and decision-maker on these resorts, have abandoned its duty to protect beautiful and rare pagoda landscapes for a potential commercial gain through resort development, breaching public trust
- I object to the NPWS doing all the development approval dirty work, shielding the green credentials of Intrepid Travel from the valid criticism
Further information
Concerns regarding these three proposed resorts
Destination Pagoda - how the Gardens of Stone SCA should be managed
You could also write to the:
Blue Mountains Gazette letter to the editor
Sydney Morning Herald letters@smh.com.au
Lithgow Mercury letter to the editor
