The Queensland Government and the Brisbane City Council plan to allow developers to turn Queensland's historic Yungaba immigration hostel into yet another luxury gated residential housing development against the overwhelming objections of local residents.

Protest against this planned cultural vandalism on the grass on the river side of Yungaba at 10am-12.30pm Sun 13 December.

Update, 30 Jan 10: Although Yungaba has been sold undemocratically to Australand, it's not over. Delene Cuddihy writes of our prospects.

What else you can do: Sign the e-petition which calls for the immediate resignation of the Queensland Govenment and new elections on the grounds of not consulting public on privatisation.

See also: www.yungaba.org.au, "Yungaba's is a history that should not be lost" by Australian author David Malouf in the Australian of 5 Dec 09, "Ghost of Cloudland back with a vengeance" by Rosemary Sorensen in the Australian of 5 Dec 09, "Govt rejects tag of 'red-neck developer'" by Tony Moore in the Brisbane Times of 5 Dec 09.

The Yungaba Action Group is resisting the plans by the Queensland Government and the Brisbane CIty Council to allow to the historic Yungaba migrant hostel to be turned by the Singapore owned Australand into a private gated residential complex. (Originally published on this site on 15 Jun 08.)

Coming up: Fund-raising river cruise stopping at Yungaba on August 23rd.
What you can do: Nominate Yungaba as a site worth retaining.

The West End Community Association (www.weca.org.au) is fighting the state Government and the Brisbane City Council to prevent their neighbourhood from being turned into a crowded, congested, and polluted high-rise slum. Darren Godwell, a leader of WECA, believes that this can be prevented if more a more thoughtful approach to planning is adopted and decisions are left in the hands of local communities.

The Brisbane mayoral election should have been anything but boring. Four candidates declared policies against population growth, but received next to no press coverage. These candidates for fundamental change ran right up against the major vested interests in the outcome of the Brisbane Council election. Those vested interests are the property development industry and its upstream and downstream dependents, which include the Courier Mail. Many group under the Australian Property Council umbrella. Choosing to structure themselves around continuously increasing population growth, naturally these industries prefer mayors who won't seriously challenge their objectives. Greg Rowell is employed by the Australian Property Council and “Can Do” Newman has been giving them what they want and telling Brisbanites that this is what Brisbane needs, for years now, in what the APC calls “the cooperative relationship between the State Government and Liberal Lord Mayor Campbell Newman."

See also "Courier Mail provides 'boring', yet unbalanced, coverage of Brisbane City Council elections"

Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper recently posed the question "Have these been the most boring elections?". This triggered an exchange of e-mails which began when Independent Mayoral candidate James Sinnamon wrote an open letter to the Courier Mail's City Hall reporter.

Does Vancouver on Canada's Pacific Coast deserve its reputation of being a pleasant livable city?

Retailers who have, through their own hard work over the past three years, transformed a formerly run-down area of inner-city Paddington are now being driven out by excessive rent increases.

James Sinnamon, a grass-roots environmental activist has nominated to stand for Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

See also Integrity Gympie and Townsville Community Voices

James Sinnamon, an independent candidate for Lord Mayor of Brisbane, called upon Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to tackle the real cause of housing inflation rather than to apply band-aid measures at the expense of taxpayers.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh acts out of character in order to save one of the few remaining icons of Queensland's history in Brisbane's CBD.

Brisbane's Courier Mail newspapers beat-up over lack of facilities for mega-sized luxury cruise ships, such as the Queen Victoria draws an (unpublished) response from Independent Mayoral candidate, James Sinnamon.

The key ingredients leading to the Wollongong developers donations scandal are all here in Brisbane. Both Queensland Liberal and Labor parties use the developers as cash cows for their election campaigns.

Stop The Hale Street Group slams Labor Council candidates for taking credit for their achievements.
See also What price for City Hall accountability? of 5 Feb 2008.

Labor and Liberal plans to bulldoze a beautiful stand of mature hoop pines and gums at the eastern end of Kalinga Park are unacceptable and unnecessary, says Green Candidate for Hamilton Ward, Tristan Peach.

David White, candidate for the Brisbane City Council ward comments on the last minute efforts by by both Labor and Liberal candidates to sweep years of neglect of Brisbane's Public transport system under the carpet.

Darren Godwell, President, West End Community Association details the spectacular cost blowouts in Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's Hale Street toll bridge project reveals how it was approved by both Labor and Liberal Councillors against the overwhelming wishes of local residents lacking adequate information about the traffic and public transport impacts.

"City Council proposes to plonk a population equivalent to Gympie's (15,000 - 20,000 people) into South Brisbane, with little of the infrastructure needed to maintain a sound quality of life for such a massive increase in population” says the West End Community Association