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About the Arundel Hills Community Association Inc. |
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| The Arundel Hills Community Association was formed to coordinate the community’s response to the threat posed to Arundel’s green space by the purchase of the former site of the Arundel Hills Country Club by Melbourne-based property developers.
Learn more about the Arundel Hills Community Association Inc. Making a Donation to the Arundel Hills Community Association Our major fund-raising appeal is underway. We urgently need funds to pay for legal support during the court case that will decide the future of the Arundel Hills green space. Please use the links below to find out more and learn how to make a donation either via our BSB and Account Number or using PayID linked to our email address. See our President’s message regarding the urgency of raising funds now The importance of reporting koala sightings |
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What’s Happening Now and Next and Recently |
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| Thank you, Allison! Allison Williams stepped down from the Association committee at the recent AGM. Allison was a founder member of the committee. In offering a vote of thanks to Allison at a recent committee meeting, Association President Jason Young said that her hard work and dedication contributed greatly to the success that the Association has achieved so far. This was endorsed by the whole committee. |
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| Next hearing in the Developer’s Appeal – additional postponement due to TC Alfred – will now happen March 14th After all the “excitement” of the call-in that never happened and the TLPI that got cancelled, the process of making a decision about the future of the Arundel Hills site is back to “business as usual”. Following-on from Gold Coast City Council’s rejection of the 3 Group’s original Development Application, 3 Group launched an appeal in the Queensland Planning and Environment Court. Not much has happened with that appeal so far because the potential call-in and the proposed TLPI would have made a court decision unneccesary had either of those come to fruition. But now the Court will decide on the future of the site. The Court will treat this as a “decision anew”, ignoring any conclusions that the Council previously arrived at and making a decision only on the basis of information and evidence presented to it by lawyers and expert witnesses engaged by the parties to the case. Fortunately, Gold Coast City Council is standing by its commitment to fight the appeal with all the resources at its disposal.The full court process involves many stages and we are unlikely to see a determination made by the court until the end of this year, at the earliest, and quite likely a good deal later than that. The Association is determined to remain involved in the entire process to represent the interests of the Arundel Hills community. |
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| Our AGM was held on Saturday 22nd February 2025 The AGM of the Arundel Hills Community Association Inc. was held on Saturday 22nd February 2025. The Association would like to thank Jeannine and Roger Farrell, who were kind enough to host the event in their home. The meeting was attended by 35 members of the Association (including 11 members of the committee) and there were 25 apologies for absence that were minuted.At the meeting, all the existing members of the committee, except one, stood for re-election and were confirmed in their posts, unopposed. In addition, former committee member Greg Williams stood to re-join the committee and was confirmed in post, unopposed. The meeting went through the usual formalities of an AGM, including the President’s review of the year and formal presentation of audited accounts for the year. There was also a lively discussion about the process going forward to deal with the continuing threat of development on Arundel’s treasured greenspace and the funding that the committee will need to ensure that the community is engaged in that process to best advantage. Formal minutes of the meeting are included in the Details and Documents page linked below where you can also review all the AGM documentation. |
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| Season’s Greetings from the Association President and Committee As we got towards the end of 2024, we looked back on some great achievements and forwards to future success. See the President’s seasonal message by clicking on the link below. |
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| About the TLPI A Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI) is a means for the Queensland State Government to impose a set of planning rules for a given site, overriding whatever rules were previously put in place for that site by the local council responsible for it. A TLPI pertaining to the Arundel Hills site was first made public by the then Housing Minister, Meaghan Scanlon, on 4th September 2024. It proposed a building scheme that would have been totally disastrous for Arundel Hills.Following a change of Queensland government in the state election of October 2024, the new government cleared the way for City of Gold Coast Council to reject the TLPI. That happened in a Council meeting on 19th November 2024. While the TLPI will no long have any bearing on what happens at the Arundel Hills site, if you are interested in seeing the details of how the Association and others responded to the TLPI, you can find them using the link below. |
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| Court Hearing 22nd October 2024 A hearing took place at the Queensland Planning and Environment court on 22nd October 2024, in the matter of the developer’s appeal against the council’s decision, on 25th January 2024, to reject the original development application. Those co-respondents who have signed a Form 10 were represented in court by Jason Young and Glenn Pearson who generously gave their time to be there on behalf of all of us. The upshot was that the matter has been adjourned until March 2025. Use the link below to hear Jason’s report about this. |
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| Community Meeting The Arundel Hills Community Association held a Town Hall meeting at Arundel State School on Sunday 22nd September. Our local councillor Joe Wilkinson, local state MP Sam O’Connor and the chair of City of Gold Coast Council’s Planning Committee Mark Hammel were our featured guests. They provided answers to the community’s questions to help us understand the implications of the latest steps in the planning process for the Arundel Hills site. In addition to the estimated 300 to 400 local residents and interested parties, just as with the previous Town Hall meeting, there was a koala in a tree by the school entrance. It’s as if they know what is going on and want to support us. |
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| Pledge Campaign The Association needs to plan the way forward in our community’s fight to preserve and protect the incumbent wildlife population that relies on the former golf course green space for their habitat. Part of that is knowing what financial resources we can count on from the community. We have launched a Pledge Campaign and encourage members and other supporters to make a pledge in support of our cause. |
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| Membership Membership is vital to the Association. When talking to official bodies and the media, our authority comes entirely from the numbers that we represent. If you are not already a member, please consider becoming one. If you are already a member, please make sure that you have paid your membership subscription for the 2024/25 membership year. |
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| Appeal Court Case The developers are appealing against the City of Gold Coast Council’s rejection of their Development Application that was determined on the 25th January 2024. Their appeal court case has been lodged with the Planning and Environment Court in Brisbane. This case is currently in adjournment until 3rd March 2025. (Update: On 28th Feb 2025, the date of the hearing was postponed to 7th March). Find out more about the appeal court case and how we set new records for citizen participation. |
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| Facebook Joining our Facebook group is a great way to keep up with news and announcements from the Association. |
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What’s happened to get us this far |
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| Getting to this stage in the battle to protect Arundel Hills’ green space has required the concerted efforts of committee members, other volunteers – such as Neighbourhood Champions – and the whole community working together. If you want to know about what happened at each stage and find documents and information relating to past activities, please click the link below.
Find out more about the Arundel Hills Community Association Inc. story. |
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