Green light for Cooran quad tours really revs up debate
QUAD bike tour operator Charles Marais intends to have his Woondum National Park tours up and running by December.
And the man behind the divisive Cooran tourism venture, approved last Thursday thanks to a casting vote from Mayor Mark Jamieson to break a deadlock, believes the matter should never have been before councillors in the first place.
"Realistically it was something that should never have gone to council. It was a decision that council planning could have made on their own, they're quite aware of that but they chose to go that long route," Mr Marais said.
"We've got to try and get December trade. We've got to make the dollars," said Mr Marais who will go ahead and purchase the 12 quad bikes he needs to run the tours of 10 clients plus tour guides.
After months of investigation, especially into how neighbours along Tablelands Rd would be impacted by noise, Mr Marais has the green light to operate Monday to Saturdays - excluding public holidays - with two tours a day.
Thanks to an amendment by Councillor Peter Cox who visited the Cooran tour location the weekend before the vote, the council chose to reject a staff planning recommendation to restrict the operation to just one Saturday tour to give resident some "nuisance" noise relief.
Asked if he was happy with the final outcome, Mr Marais who wanted seven-day tours through the park, said: "There's never enough days, but yes. I'm just glad that we can go ahead".
Mr Marais indicated on Friday he would be seeking additional tours with the council
"We'll negotiate further down the track (with the council)," he said.
He believes the campaign against the bikes being allowed to operate in national parks was a storm in a teacup.
"Correctly speaking, council had their own legal advice - they were told legally they had no jurisdiction in the national park, the entire thing was to do with my property," Mr Marais said.
"And if people really counted the actual complaints to the property they would have seen they would have amounted to less than 20."
Council planner Kerri Coyle told councillors last Thursday legal advice to council was the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection had the only say about commercial operations in the national park. They have granted a permit to operate tours for three years.
