The state government has given the go-ahead for a somewhat dubious " Tourist Facility " at Maddens Plains. This bare stretch of ground between the F-6 and the Princes Highway is devoid of electric power, water and sewerage facilities, and is well known for fogs and high winds.
The approval is conditional. The original plan called for one hundred and eighty tourist villas. These have been reduced to one hundred and twenty seven - and will only be available for one hundred and fifty days a year - with a limit of forty two days consecutive occupation.
In addition to the tourist villas there will be one hundred serviced apartments, one hundred hotel rooms, a two hundred seat conference centre, plus a swimming pool, golf clubhouse and a gymnasium.
The cost of this project is estimated at $ 108 million.
What introduces a jarring note is the plan to endow the " village " with a nine hole golf course.
This whole concept hinges on attracting tourists who are supposed to flock to the area for a relaxing golfing holiday. The figures simply do not add up !
There will be accommodation for three hundred and twenty seven families - and it would be physically impossible for that number of people to play a round of golf on a nine hole golf course in any one day. More so, if each visitor was accompanied by a golf playing spouse.
It looks suspiciously like an " end run " plan to create a new suburb and profit from the eventual sale of homes - and this suspicion is heightened by the fact that Maddens Plains would never be approved for residential housing because of it's environmental fragility.
Approval reeks of deals done in smoke filled rooms. Conditions of approval are sanctions only if they are enforced - and past history is not encouraging in that respect !
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