Major Development About To Transform The Oceanfront

Sun Herald

Sunday August 19, 2007

By Carolyn Boyd

THE last stretch of the sand-mine-pocked coast between Kingscliff and Cabarita in northern NSW is being cleared to make way for an upmarket development that will house 2000 people.

Bulldozers are moving in to create Seaside, a 32-hectare site that will complete the three developments being built along the eight-kilometre strip of sand that has been dubbed "the new Tweed Coast".

Seaside will link the $1.5 billion Casuarina Beach with the $1 billion Salt Village in what development manager Ron Barclay says is "the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle".

The area was approved for subdivision in the 1920s but was extensively sand mined in the 1950s and replanted with bitou bush, a South African native considered a noxious weed in Australia.

Seaside will be a mix of houses, apartments and tourist accommodation and will include a shopping centre.

When finished in about seven years there will be about 1200 permanent residents and room for 800 tourists.

The site was originally called Seaside City but lead developer Richtech has dropped the "city", fearing it would make the area sound big and impersonal.

Demographer Bernard Salt says that's probably a smart move when it comes to attracting sea changers. "They are people who move for lifestyle and almost philosophical reasons - they don't want to be part of a big city," Salt says.

While increasing prices in the Tweed have moderated the sea change phenomenon, Salt says the area is still attractive to people wanting a quieter lifestyle. Its drawcards include having an airport nearby and enjoying access to broadband internet. "If you're going to do the sea change thing then it's got to be one of the best spots in Australia to do it. There's an energy about the place as well as a lifestyle [and a good] climate. And there's quite a strong green movement there, which aligns with modern values as well."

The Tugun Bypass, scheduled to be finished next year, will make it easier for workers to commute to Brisbane, Salt says. Tweed Economic Development Corporation chief executive Tom Senti says the bypass will put the region within 75 minutes of Brisbane and create opportunities for a variety of businesses, including niche food manufacturing.

Blocks at Seaside are expected to go on sale within a year. Work is under way to build roads and connect power, water and sewerage.

Tweed Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Michael Tree says the development will mean more jobs for the area.

Site work and project consultants will be sourced from the Tweed area where possible, Barclay says.

The developer has committed to a multimillion-dollar dune and creek rehabilitation program to eradicate the noxious bitou bush along the beachfront and restore the dunes and land adjacent to Cudgen Creek.

More than 70,000 native seedlings will be planted to stabilise and revegetate the dune area.

A spokesman for conservation group Surfrider Foundation Australia says the organisation is concerned funding for environmental management might not continue after the first five years of the project.

At the neighbouring 183-hectare Casuarina, 400 house sites and 500 units have been built. Groups such as Multiplex, Resortcorp, APH Properties and the Ray Group have bought into the estate.

Susan Wootten and her family have just bought a three-bedroom, double-storey house at Casuarina to use as weekender.

They received the keys at the beginning of this month.

Wootten, who is pregnant with her fifth child, said she and her husband Bradley were looking for a place by the beach within 90 minutes' drive of their Brisbane home.

The couple, both aged 38, had considered a bigger house in Brisbane to accommodate their growing family but decided they would get more use out of a holiday home.

The Woottens hope to spend almost every weekend at their $750,000 house and are impressed by the fact they can walk and cycle about the estate. "We plan on not driving anywhere."

THE FACTS

* The three developments are 16 kilometres south of Tweed Heads and 54 kilometres north of Byron. Brisbane is 118 kilometres away.

* The Gold Coast-Tweed region is home to 527,660 people. Of those, 80,000 live in the Tweed Shire. An extra 14,500 people moved to the region in 2005-06.

* The Tweed Shire is popular with retirees. It has a median age of 44, compared with the median age for the wider region of 38.

* Service-based industries comprise 88 per cent of the economy. Agriculture contributes a significant amount to the local economy.

© 2007 Sun Herald

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