Politics

11-11-2021

ACTIVE RECREATION ON TAMBORINE MOUNTAIN

Scenic Rim Council was formed in 2008 and ABS Data at the time showed it had a population of 32,431. Now that is 43,000. That contrasts with the approximate population of the Beaudesert Shire Council in 2008 of 65,000. It is not likely that Scenic Rim Council will reach that population until after 2040.

The Tamborine Mountain sports grounds were built and constructed by the community in my first term of Scenic Rim Regional Council, 2008-12, and filled a massive gap in facilities for active recreation.

The population of Tamborine Mountain has grown considerably in the last 17 years and is now 8100, from 5328 in August 2006, according to ABS data. The largest impetus for population growth came when the high school was built. 

Following detailed studies when Tamborine Mountain was in the Beaudesert Shire Council, it was identified that the Mountain was 40 acres short of active recreation land considered necessary to cater for the population of 5328 persons. It was then that the 50 acres of land were purchased on Long Road for $3 million in a whole of shire strategy to purchase $14 million of land in strategic locations across the Beaudesert Shire region. I was at the time tasked with this project, including the negotiation of all land purchases. 

Population growth has meant we are now short of land to cater for our need for active recreation land and facilities for what is the largest population centre in the Scenic Rim, with a catchment just within the Scenic Rim of approximately 14,000 using our facilities, including Canungra, Tamborine Village and Beechmont. In addition, there is an overflow from contiguous suburbs in Gold Coast City Council area.

Presently the Tamborine Mountain Sports Association (TMSA) is by far the largest sporting body in the Scenic Rim and caters for nine sporting codes, with 935 registered active members. There are not enough ovals to cater for these clubs at the TMSA grounds and they are spilling over to the Showgrounds and Geissman Oval. Not one of our sporting clubs has a clubhouse they can call home, and this is a major shortfall for the viability and health of all these clubs in terms of all the social and well-being benefits of belonging to a club. In the last 13 years, the TMSA facility has been run by volunteers struggling to maintain the basics (but still managing to make lighting improvements) and the original master plan for the clubrooms has not progressed. 

Now Council has funded the TMSA to produce a professional master plan for the whole site that identifies the opportunities for the future and is before Council for consideration. Based on a preliminary view of this plan, I consider that with the right facilities and opportunities the participation in active recreation on the Mountain could easily triple in participation across all age groups. 

The first Scenic Rim Council produced a whole of shire Recreation Plan a year before the TMSA built its facility and it identified very strongly the need for a new indoor aquatic centre to replace the aging inadequate pool. I am committed to this outcome. 

Scenic Rim Council commissioned another Sport and Recreation Plan early last year (2020) and this report is in its final stages of deliberation. This report and consideration of the form of commitment in next year’s budget may lead to some structural changes to address the maintenance and upkeep of Recreation facilities across the whole region. 

It is estimated that to properly maintain and run just the TMSA facilities every year i.e., to fund its depreciation and operating costs, would be of the order of $250,000 per year. That is not presently possible nor sustainable, especially considering the backlog over the last decade. 

My views about the capacity and political dynamics of the SRRC funding a major master plan or even agreeing to do so over a long period of time, to address our infrastructure needs is well known. The feedback I have received is that the plebiscite result showing 65 per cent of Tamborine Mountain residents want to move to GCCC at the next election is clearly not acknowledged by our own relevant municipal decision-makers, and so the democratic process of decision making will continue, albeit that they must understand the Mountain’s expectations a lot better even if not acknowledged. 

It is a no-brainer that GCCC with a $1.6 billion budget would be a higher probability of meeting these needs than SRRC and so work continues to achieve this move to Gold Coast at the same time as getting the best SRRC outcome for the Mountain. 

Derek Swanborough
Councillor. Division 1
derek.s@scenicrim.qld.gov.au
Ph 0436 351 567