David Marriner outlined his vision for his newly-acquired Sheraton Mirage Resort to members of the Port Douglas, Mossman and Daintree Rainforest business communities, Chambers of Commerce and Local Tourism Organisations.

To a very significant extent, Port Douglas owes its repute, as a world-class holiday resort destination par excellence, to the benchmark of opulence established by the Sheraton Mirage back in the mid-1980’s.

Leaders of Nation States have joined the patron ranks of celebrities to the prestigious property, giving further impetus to the legend of luxury and to the broader destination, by association. Successive developments have built upon and complemented the prime-mover of the Sheraton Mirage, but a quarter of a century later, Port Douglas has fallen rather depressingly into the doldrums.

What is perhaps less well known, is the regulated dependency upon Port Douglas prosperity, for the socio-economic requirements of the Daintree Rainforest community. Much has been celebrated over the years of the proximity of the Great Barrier Reef to Port Douglas, as an essential attribute of the destination’s international appeal, but there are many other coastal Queensland communities espousing the same advantage. However, there is only one place in the world where two World Heritage Areas meet and Port Douglas has been established to consolidate development based around the gateway to this dual World Heritage treasure.

The preferred development pattern stipulated within the Planning Scheme establishes the role of Port Douglas as a major tourist node which accommodates intensive tourism development, whilst simultaneously restricting development in the Daintree Rainforest area for conservation purposes. The withering of Port Douglas prosperity is having devastating effect on the conservation economy of the Daintree Rainforest.

In his presentation, David Marriner spoke of the impediment to a level playing field between government and the private-sector. The substantive injection of private funds to re-launch the Sheraton Mirage into a new era of vitality, for the public benefit of Port Douglas and associated communities, including the Daintree Rainforest, requires dedicated partisanship by the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments, to ensure competitive neutrality within the convention/events facilities program of the public-sector.

The Daintree Rainforest community is well aware of the legitimacy of this appropriately enunciated concern. Where its dedicated community has been regulated into a conservation management land-use function, which is also carried out on neighbouring public-lands by publicly-owned land-management agencies, severe impediments to fair trade on an underlying basis of land-tenure occur, because the functions and mandates of government land management agencies are not considered business activities; therefore, they are not required to maintain competitive neutrality. In addition, Section 51 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 essentially provides that regard will not be had to conduct which is specifically authorised or approved by any Federal legislation or by specific State or Territory regulation, regardless of their tourism impacts conferring such substantial exclusionary influences to fair trade upon non-government tenures.

The management committee of Tourism Daintree Coast (Inc.,) has given Mr. Marriner’s proposal due consideration and hereby commends its importance, via our Federal and State Members, to both Commonwealth and Queensland Governments for support, as a matter of regional significance.

The proposal to inject $40-million dollars into the refurbishment of the iconic, yet tired and aging resort and to construct a Great Barrier Reef Arts and Exposition Forum, which would include a huge open-air amphitheatre and state-of-the-art conference centre, needs to be supplemented by Commonwealth and State Governments each contributing $18-million dollars on outstandingly secure terms.

In Port Douglas’s golden days, tourism based on the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest, thrived as visitors from around the world flocked to the coastal township to see the two World Heritage areas and to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. There is no doubt that our ailing tourism industry needs rejuvenation. Businesses are going into receivership or closing down and unemployment in the Cairns Region is over 10%. Urgent intervention is required to re-ignite tourism into nature’s masterpiece, with flow-on effects for the construction sector and our broader socio-economic well-being.

Tourism Daintree Coast calls on State and Federal Governments to support this proposal with the immediate pledge of funding to reinvigorate our economy, to put Port Douglas back on the map as a high-class tourism destination and to use our taxpayer funds to support private enterprise, the foundation of our society.

Sustainable tourism is the only economy that can support genuine conservation of our natural assets. We currently do not have that. Here’s a chance for both State and Federal governments to restore confidence and prosperity to the region.

Neil Hewett, President, Tourism Daintree Coast
email: president@daintreecoast.com
www.daintreecoast.com