Clarence Valley Independent, Letter to the Editor, 14 November 2017:
It is rare for me to get so steamed up that I feel compelled to write a letter to the editor. “Cruise Terminal Slated for Yamba” (CVI 1/11/17). Seriously?
Oh, this will be good for business, good for economic development, good for growth! What is it about the human race that they cannot get their minds past the almighty $ sign? Why do we want growth? Yamba is beautiful as it is. The peace and tranquillity, at least partially the reason we love living here, is already under threat as the highway to Brisbane nears completion and trip times of under three hours can be anticipated.
Have we not seen what became of the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and now, regrettably, Byron Bay? When I first visited Surfers Paradise you could count the high rise buildings on the fingers of one hand, and two or three of those were only about ten stories. It was a lovely little place. I suppose there must be some people who think it’s a lovely place now, but I never seem to meet them. There was a time you could have your afternoon nap in the middle of the main street of Byron Bay. These days it is a constant stream of cars driving round and round the streets desperately hoping to find a parking space before its time to go home again!
So now, in the slavish pursuit of growth and economic development, are we going to do the same thing to Yamba? The only kind of growth that would be really good is if we could actually grow the planet itself, to meet the needs and expectations of an ever growing population. As for economic growth, I imagine, if you were to ask the majority of people who live here, they would tell you they didn’t come to Yamba to make their fortunes. Even those operating local businesses must surely have done the arithmetic and decided that their enterprise was never going to feature in Forbes; but it would fund the kind of lifestyle you cannot find in a city. If the almighty dollar is so important then go to the cities; go to where the market is, don’t try to drag the market here.
Patrick Roberts, Yamba
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