Surfpolitik Who Can Stand in the Way...?

In: Surfpolitik by Stu Nettle 21 Comments Wed 9th Feb '11

Tags: catherine hill bay , rose group , coastal development , environmental protection , catherine hill bay progress association , bhp

Shouting slogans is a hell of a lot of fun. Yelling at the suits and waving placards too. In fact, everything about protesting is a hoot, so give me a good cause and a red megaphone and we'll get this march started.

The sober truth, however, is that the success of community action is dictated a long way from the picket line. The beating heart of any right-minded campaign is the core group of people who operate when the TV cameras aren't running. The people whose energy propels it forward and whose knowledge guides it.

And if a campaign is opposing a multi-million dollar development involving various levels of government and backed by a dogged proponent, then those people better have a wide-rangeing knowledge of policy and process. A bottomless supply of motivation would also come in handy.

Sue Whyte is the President of Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association. For the last eight years they've been fighting a proposed development at the bay.

Swellnet: What is the latest on the development at Catherine Hill Bay, Sue?
Sue Whyte: We recently had a rally to bring attention to the latest threat because so many people think Catho has been saved.

I'm one of them. I thought the community won.
No, it's not finished. It's not over. They're coming again and even worse than before.

We've been fighting these developments since 2002. In 2003 he (the developer) put this development into council and they knocked it back on 13 grounds and then he convinced the Planning Minister at the time, Frank Sartor, to take it up as a Part 3A.

Part 3A removes it from local government planning, is that correct?
Absolutely. Part 3A allows the minister to overrule zonings, to overrule heritage listings...everything. And once it gets listed as 3A council doesn't have any input at all. In fact our council doesn't want this development, because this is a heritage listed village. It's a destination area for tourism and council doesn't want that destroyed.

So in 2006, following the 3A ruling, there was a concept plan and even Frank Sartor said 'this is terrible, go away and get new architects.' Which they did and they came back in 2008 with another concept plan. That one really was a lot better but it was still on the headland, and still destroying Moonee.

You know, Moonee Beach is this pristine beach and what the developer wants to do is put fill in so all the houses have this really proud view over Moonee. So we've been saying all along 'you've got to get it off the headland, you've got to pull it back from Moonee Beach.' But that's where the developer will make his big bucks. So he's been refusing that.

Anyway, it got taken to court and the approval was overturned and because of that people think that we won. However, Kristina Keneally wouldn't retract the zonings, because she was the Planning Minister at the time. Since then the planning department has put through a new State Environmental Planning Policy which allows this new subdivision plan. And it really is hideous. It's a 1970's, scorched earth, back-to-back subdivision. No buffer zones, no tree ridge, nothing. It's just appalling.

I saw the plan. It's the one with streets spreading out like concentric circles, right?
No, that was the first one that got knocked back by Frank. That was better than this one. This plan is a straight subdivison that makes no allowance for landscape and would be inapropriate anywhere in NSW. But right on our coast...?

The developer though, he will make all his money by building on the headland and on the coast. Then he'll take the money and run.

You keep saying 'he' Sue, who is he?
Bob Rose. Rose Group are the developers and they are a private company, a family company, and Bob Rose is the head. He's Daddy, and he's got two boys, Stuart and Brian. Brian is actually running this project but whatever Daddy says goes.

He owns the land, but the thing is we've got a coastal protection act, we've got coastal policy, coastal design guideleines, and all of those have been overlooked to allow this.

So Bob Rose actually owns all the land?
He does. He bought it...and this is where it all gets very shady. This is a coal mining area and BHP had the mine and it wasn't making the required 15% profit so they put it up for sale and valued it at $12 million. But it never went on the market and Rose Group ended up buying it for $4.25 million in a deal done on a golf course.

It's an enormous block of land, it goes from Lake Macquarie over to the ocean. It's a very big area. And all he's ever wanted to do was develop right on the coast.

How long ago did he acquire it?
The mine closed in 2002, and suddenly he owned it and the development plans were in. Well, I mean OK, speculators are speculators, and why expect them to do anything else? I don't mind that, but this was land that was so valuable it was zoned coastal acquisition. So why would you let a private developer develop on land that the government considers so valuable?

It's just this rampant greed. You say to yourself, what do these developers want out of life? Sometimes it seems like it's not even about the money but who got the best deal. He's doing some very dirty tricks and we have to keep an eye on him.

The development has been back and forth for 8 years now, do you fear that Rose Group won't take no for an answer and keep trying to push the development through?
Bob Rose was a chairman of the Urban Task Force, which sounds terribly official but it's not. It's a group of big time developers who have very, very close links to the Labor party and give a lot of political donations. That's why all these deals are really stinky. Anyway, the Liberal Party wont even talk to the Urban Task Force. They've said they are going to get rid of Part 3A. So what he's trying to do is get through as much as he can before the government changes.

Which it inevitably will at the next election...
Absolutely. So what we're trying to do is get the planning minister, Tony Kelly, to not tick it off. To send it to a planning assessment committee. And we want to convince him to do that.

A funny thing is that our local member is a Labor guy and up until now he's been all for the development. Very cosy with the developer he's been. But now the election is coming and it's going to be a tight one he's now all for the community. He even came out to our big rally wearing a 'Save Catho' t-shirt!

Keep up to date with the fight at Catherine Hill Bay by visiting this site.
The title of this article is a direct rip-off from the Midnight Oil song 'Who Can Stand In The Way' from their 1984 album, Red Sails in the Sunset.