JUNGLE DRUM: How to climb the slippery slope
LAWRENCE MASON COLUMN
Last week I wrote about the long slow decline of our great Shire. I don't want to labour on the negative so I will get into the positive right away. We need new research and a new way forward.
We are as a community very good at getting to together to meet a perceived need. You only need to look at the Daintree community banding together in 2015 to get our boardwalks repaired instead of destroyed, and to have seen the private boats bringing hope and kindness to Degarra before any form of organised help had arrived.
Even when roads get closed often someone with a machine and or chainsaw is there before the structured help arrives.
But when something goes wrong slowly, like the decline in tourism, failures to invest in roads, water and recreational facilities and the slow death of cane, it is harder for someone to just jump in and make the save. The issue is complicated because at least some of the decline is certainly deliberate; people 'save Daintreeing' the place who absolutely no concern for the community and it's future. Charlatans are eyeing the fertile cane land like a hungry Hyena eyes a fresh kill.
The disenfranchising of community has been documented in research as early as 24 years ago. Also, much of the decline is due to poor forward planning by successive governments. We are in many ways 20 years behind the eightball.
I think we must engage Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the Ratepayers Association and ALL the Community to begin a process of Forums and Workshops; Participatory Action Research. We must engage with professional researchers with proven track records, not wannabe facilitators who make motherhood statements, submit a tax invoice and leave.
A big part of any successful research program would be subsequent implementation; our Council and bureaucrats MUST hear us. At a recent meeting a Councillor asked if we could regress to a three-lane ferry, and was answered that it could be on the table. No matter that numerous research projects have highlighted the need for a bigger ferry and noted that a longer ferry would be impossible hence four lanes. This kind of utter stupidity is what keeps us heading backwards. This is one example of hundreds where DSC, WTMA, National Parks and other agencies just don't listen. And don't care.
There has been no review of disaster response and none seems to be planned. The fact that we hand out awards before reviews speaks volumes on this. Tick and flick. Where is the oversight?
In her 2001 PHD titled "A Troubled Paradise - Stakeholder Perspectives on Tourism in the Daintree Region", the author Anne Hardy considers stakeholder views are ignored. Ignoring stakeholders has become de rigueur in our bureaucracy and while my examples relate to the disasters and transport, I know similar finds would be made if we researched roads, water, pests and cane to name a few.
I have written to the Chamber of Commerce and Ratepayers Association and now call on our Council to not only conduct meaningful research, but to prioritise implementation of the results. I simply cannot believe Council meetings are rumbling on business as usual while the Shire literally crumbles around us on all fronts. I urge community members to get involved, because if we don't Douglas will be a ghost Shire in a couple of years. Perhaps when it amalgamates with Cairns again, we might see some action?
*Lawrence Mason has lived at Cape Tribulation all his life, and has been involved in farming, timber and tourism. He is a former board member of Tourism Port Douglas Daintree, founding Chair of Daintree Marketing Co-operative, and has been a member of both Alexandra Bay and Mossman State High School P&C. He is also a member of the Douglas Chamber of Commerce and has a keen interest in local issues.
- The opinions and views in this column are those of the author and author only and do not reflect the Newsport editor or staff.