Lingering concerns on Lindeman

The Coordinator-General’s evaluation report on the environmental impact statement for the Lindeman Island resort redevelopment has been released. As you may recall, NPAQ has been working for several months to protect Lindeman Islands National Park from this latest development proposal. There were some significant wins highlighted in the report:

• no new development in the national park
• no revocation of over 35 hectares of national park
• no direct impact on coral as the construction of the safe harbour will not proceed
• no dredging

However, NPAQ still has some significant concerns:

• the insufficient distance of some up slope villas to Critically Endangered vegetation communities – Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia
• trimming and ongoing disturbance of 1.5 hectares of Endangered Broad Leaf Tea-Tree (Melaleuca viridiflora), with no requirement for an offset.

NPAQ will be allocating significant resources throughout the upcoming follow-up approvals processes. This will include the Environmental Authority application, the renewed lease over the national park and the Vegetation and Irrigation Management Plans. The broader public may be able to provide further feedback in these later stages as part of the required Community Stakeholder Engagement Plan. We will keep you updated on when public feedback will occur.