Historian Janet Spillman wrote this submission to the Natural Resources Minster Dr. Antony Lynham regarding the Draft Land Management Plan for the ziplines proposal in Mt Coot-tha Forest and the Botanic Gardens.

Mt Coot-tha Zip line

Dear Minister Lynham,

I am writing to you to express my opposition to Brisbane City Council’s proposed change of use for Mt Coot-tha. This forest reserve was given to the people of Brisbane as a recreation reserve and for no other purpose whatsoever, under the terms of the Queensland government’s deed of trust of 1880. As the historian of Mt Coot-tha I have researched and written about the attempts by state governments and council, over the years, to subvert the terms of this deed of trust. The quarry, the Western Freeway, and the television towers have, in my opinion, been inexcusable violations of that deed of trust, and now it seems that Brisbane City Council is determined to privatise our invaluable natural asset with the creation of a commercially owned zip line.

Brisbane and south east Queensland are undergoing rapid development. Unlike the great cities of the world, Brisbane does not have extensive park lands. London has its royal parks, and smaller local parks, New York has Central Park and many other smaller parks. Paris enjoys the Bois de Boulogne. Brisbane used to have its parks, but these have over the years been sold off to developers or given away to sport clubs (and later, sold off to developers). Brisbane used to have houses set in gardens, but those gardens are disappearing as subdivisions for housing. Moreover, ever-larger houses are rebuilt in the house plots. We are fast losing the vegetation that made Brisbane a liveable city. We are now losing the iconic Mt Coot-tha that the Council referred us to when we complained about our loss of green space. All this at a time when Brisbane City Council promotes itself as a green heart city smartcouncil.

The effects of climate change will make us rethink the green spaces we have lost. Will we replace the vegetation once found on Mt Coot-tha with garden walls on our sky scrapers? Will we have to resort to roof gardens on our high rises? How will we deal with the heat island effect of a city like Brisbane which is covering an ever larger area of concrete and bitumen where once we had vegetation? How will we manage the run-off from these man made surfaces into the creeks and rivers, come the next flood? Where is the long term planning to deal with these issues?

Council’s planning for this privatisation has not included real engagement with the Indigenous owners.

Mt Coot-tha, on Council’s own Brisbane City Plan of 2015, as with the SEQ Regional Plan, provides a regional wildlife corridor linking the d’Aguilar Range with the Brisbane River. It provides habitat that ensures the biodiversity of plants and wildlife. Most notably, it provides habitat for the threatened powerful owl; slight changes to the flight path of the zip line and canopy walk will not save the birds and sugar gliders of Mt Coot-tha. The proposals are not compliant with either the SEQ Regional Plan or The Brisbane City Plan (2014).

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I am a member of the Wandering Weeders Bush care group, weeding, planting and watering a section  of the forest near Chapel Hill and Kenmore. Our group of up to ten people are part of the Habitat Brisbane programme, volunteering every Wednesday morning for this work. We are delighted to see the regeneration that happens once weeds are removed, and know that the many walkers who pass us are aware of the value of our work, and of the forest that we are improving. We have worked very hard at this, over many years, so Council’s destruction of 600 hectares of bush land, 37.5% of the Greater Mt Coot-tha Forest, is a slap in the face.