Up to a quarter of the land on Great Keppel Island could be developed in the future without any development ever taking place on Lot 21, the largest parcel of land on the island. When considering the lands the land owned by Tower Holdings, Traditional owners, freehold lands and State Lands, up to about 25% of the western side of the island is already allocated for development without the State allowing Tower Holdings to develop part of Lot 21 which is public land.
‘Tower Holdings want to develop 22% of Lot 21 on GKI for accommodation as part of their proposed Golf Course and Park villas. Lot 21 is owned by the Queensland Government and is governed by a Recreation Lease which has the unique condition of allowing public access. This condition was placed on the land when the original Grazing Lease was converted to a Recreation Lease’ said the spokesperson.
Tower claim that their development is for tourism because residential accommodation cannot be built on a Recreation lease. The lease would need to be changed from recreation to Tourism. The villas would be leased rather than freehold title. Owners would have to vacate their home for some time in a year although the length of time is still unclear.
‘Excising 22% of the land owned by the public (Lot 21) would essentially exclude the right of public access to these areas although Tower claims that the public will have access to all parts of Lot 21. While most of the other islands are protected from development by National Parks, no protected areas currently exist on GKI, the largest of the 18 Keppel Bay Islands, with the sixth highest plant biodiversity of the GBR continental islands. Allowing Tower to place 60% of their development Lot 21 when so much of the western side of the island has already been allocated for potential development is ridiculous when they already have so much land that they could use. This opens up a whole new area to all the environmental problems that are associated with urbanisation. Lot 21 should be protected from development as a buffer for the impacts of potential development of the entire western and northern sides of the island’.
