Open space, parkland and preservation of precious indigenous species of flora are all important to the Council and residents of Maroochy Shire in Queensland. To this end Council and the community has been working together with great results. A series of public meetings, conducted around the Shire, has given Maroochy residents input to Council’s Open Space Strategy.
“Open space and parkland are provided for the community’s benefit and therefore it is important that the community have a say in where and how Council plans for it,” said Mayor Don Culley.
The Strategy includes planning for sporting fields, conserving environmentally significant areas and preserving areas of high scenic value, such as ridgelines and escarpments. At the various public meetings residents were invited to put their views.
One meeting was earmarked specifically for developers to express their concerns and interests. The level of community interest can be measured by the large number of volunteers who turned out recently to salvage plants and seeds from a site where a new sports complex is to be built.
Volunteers were able to relocate over 500 plants, including rare species such as the fringed violet, native iris and swamp bottlebrush plus gathered a collection of seed, to live again in other parks in the Shire.
“The experience that the volunteers have gained in rescue work will ensure these plants have the best chance of survival,” said Councillor Alan Kerlin. “The seed collected will be propagated and used for local replanting projects, and altogether there is a cost saving to Council in that 500 plants are in the ground that did not have to be purchased.”
In another money saving venture, all the plants used in Maroochy Shire’s display at the Queensland Home Garden Expo, held recently in Nambour, will be used for revegetation work in the Buderim State Forest.
Council staff were on hand during the Expo to answer questions regarding parks within the Shire, and the range of recreational activities available.
For further information contact Mayor Don Culley, telephone (07) 5441 8241.
