Say no to Golf Coast hell Comment by Germaine Greer May 17, 2003 MOST people would assume that I bought land in southeast Queensland because I want to retire there, close to the "Golf Coast", where ageing Australians can invest in properties that promise "a perfect blending of golf course, residential estate and resort", with resident professionals, pro shops and motorised carts. The Gold Coast skyline. (pic) Typically such estates are built on reclaimed land where mangrove swamp has been turned into boring, palm-fringed water frontage. Such "modern resort lifestyle living" is my idea of hell. The high-rise holiday apartment blocks of Surfers Paradise are visible from some parts of my property in the hinterland. But they might as well be a mirage for all the continuity there is between the hedonistic coast lifestyle and that of my neighbours. The people around me are battlers, struggling to make a living out of dairying, growing avocados, macadamias, bamboo shoots or renting out cabins. There's no money in any of it, but they hang on until the banks foreclose. Some fell young trees to sell as fenceposts; others sell the very rocks out of the ground to builders of the causeways and marinas of the coastal resorts. I bought my land because it was pleading for an owner who would have no need to make a living out of it. What it needed was protection from any further damage to its biodiversity. What it promised was a chance to reverse the damage already done. Though my rainforest is relatively healthy, it is not undisturbed. As soon as the Numinbah Valley was opened for settlement at the end of the 19th century, the rainforest was plundered; all its huge rosewoods and red cedars were felled, leaving great gaps in the canopy. The balance of vines and emergent trees was altered, so the vines became dominant and dragged down trees. Exotic vines joined in, so where we are encouraging regrowth, we will have to control all vine growth for the first few years at least, and perhaps forever. So why me? Why now? In 2002, at the Rio Plus 10 earth summit, Australia was declared a renegade state, defaulting in five of the six key environmental areas, including preservation of biodiversity. This year's audit of biodiversity in Australia found the rate of decline is accelerating: 2900 ecosystems are threatened; about 1600 plant and animal species are nearly extinct. The chief culprit is land-clearing, which Australia continues to do at about the same rate as Bolivia, giving it joint third position in the world vandalism ratings. And most of the land-clearing in Australia is in Queensland. Paul Sattler, senior author of the audit report commissioned by the Federal Government, has pointed out that it would be cheaper to pay landholders to keep their vegetation than try to revegetate land once it is cleared. If the landowner was only to grow nuts, it would be relatively cheap to buy him out. But if he planned a retirement village, he would be justified demanding millions for not clearing his site. The Biodiversity Australia website says this country is a "diverse and often unique environment that should be a source of pride to all Australians". You'd think white Australians had created, rather than dismantled, the astonishing biodiversity of the ancient continent in a mere 200 years. Germaine Greer is a writer and feminist, and professor of English and comparative studies at the University of Warwick in the UK. http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6449495%255E421,00.html