Living Gems – 30 Kidd Street retirement village proposed development – Community Information Session – Vonda Youngman Centre, 6-8pm Friday July 4, 2025. Submissions close July 11, 2025 – please have your say.
Macdonnell Road Development Application – submissions have closed. In a strange twist, the Living Gems developer has lodged a submission to the Macdonnell Rd application, stating that if only one is to be approved, it should be theirs.
Springtime on the Mountain – a reminder that the only official Facebook page to access for information is Springtime on the Mountain 2025. Similarly, the only official Facebook page for our garden club is Tamborine Mountain Garden Club Inc.
Rates facts -There are 3,908 rateable properties in postcode 4272, for which rates totalling $10,505,977 are levied. Of this amount, $8,997,310 (85% of total rates) is collected from residential/rural properties. There are 135 commercial properties which pay a total of $680,364 in rates.
There are 75 approved accommodation providers paying a total of $325,991 in rates. Doesn’t quite match up with the number of Air BNBs, does it?
Reality check – Residential ratepayers derive little benefit from the tourism activities on the Mountain, and the estimated 1.6m visitors annually, other than some employment.
It is important to remember this when considering the needs and wants of businesses/hospitality providers etc in relation to the broader community. Rates pay for road repairs, pump-out public toilets, parks and gardens, the cemetery, the tip, sports facilities, the library etc.
Tourists don’t use our one remaining bank nor Mitre 10 much, yet on some days it is impossible to get a park within walking distance.
Should the Kidd Street retirement DA (and/or Macdonnell Rd) be approved, the problems on Main Street will be exacerbated.
Whilst tourism is a major contributor to the local economy, it is not a significant contributor to the rates raised by Council and this needs to be considered when businesses seek more and more improvements which largely benefit tourists rather than locals.
At some point there needs to be a recognition of the impact tourism has on the Mountain as a whole, not only the bottom line of businesses.
To that end, Council is conducting an accommodation review and will be undertaking further research into the impacts of over-visitation on residents.
Hopefully the reasons why people choose to live here are not lost.
Not all growth is good – there are winners and losers.
Rates are paying for $1.2m of the $2.4m Gallery Walk carpark costs; Council acknowledged the need for parking to accommodate tourists in that location.
The “green behind the gold” only remains an attractive destination as a result of Council’s expenditure on keeping it that way – derived from rates.
Council’s budget for 2025-2026 will be very lean, and costly items such as new toilet blocks are not in the mix.
In my opinion, there needs to be more focus on the residential ratepayers given they pay 85% of the rates collected from the Mountain.
