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Some key dates and activities in the history of the Arundel Hills Community Association |
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| Here is a list of significant previous activities in the history of the Association. Some have links to further details. | |||
| 2022 | |||
| 25/05/2022 | Arundel Hills Country Club ceased operations | ||
| 12/09/2022 | Residents concerned about the future of the golf course held an inaugural meeting and form a committee. |
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| 11/10/2022 | The Facebook group Arundel Golf Club Community Reference Group was created. As at September 2024. it has nearly 900 members | ||
| 28/11/2022 | First media release was sent to the Gold Coast Bulletin. | ||
| 2023 | |||
| 08/03/2023 | The committee decided to seek incorporation as the ‘Arundel Hills Community Associaton Inc.’ | ||
| 14/02/2023 | Engagement with relevant political bodies was started with letters written to the Mayor and the CEO of Gold Coast City Council, the State ministers for Planning and Environment and the Federal Member for Fadden. | ||
| Feb 2023 | Melboune-based property development company, 3Group, contracted to buy the land formerly occupied by the Arundel Hills Country Club | ||
| 17/03/2023 | The developers lodged their Development Application (DA) with City of Gold Coast Council. It was given reference MCU/2023/84. Details of the DA can still be accessed on the City of Gold Coast’s PD Online website. Click on Development Applications after July 2017 then scroll to the bottom of the page and click Next. Then search for the application reference, MCU/2023/84. | ||
| April 2023 | Letterbox drop to all Arundel Hills households inviting attendance at an upcoming public meeting. | ||
| 13/04/2023 | The Association’s Cerificate of Incorporation is received, allowing the Association to have paid membership and operate on a financial basis. | ||
| ??/04/2023 | The land is purchased by 3Group, a property development company based in Melbourne | ||
| 17/04/2023 | The public meeting was held at Arundel State School, exceeding all expectations with over 700 in attendance and widespread media coverage on local print and broadcast outlets. A survey of attendees was conducted. The website was launched and a membership drive was initiated. | ||
| May 2023 | The Association developed its governance structure and policies to comply with regulations controlling non-profit incorporated bodies. | ||
| 03/06/2023 | The Neighbourhood Champion network was established with an inagural meeting and training of those who had volunteered for the role. Over the next weeks, the Neighbourhood Champions knocked on most doors in the area to introduce themselves and the Association to the community. | ||
| 26/06/2023 | The Association agreed terms with Hickey Lawyers to provide the legal assistance that it was clear would be needed to meet the aims of the Association. | ||
| Aug. 2023 | In anticipation of the start of the public consultation period for the Development Application, the Association created Submission Kits to assist local residents, and others, in making powerful, individual submissions to the council. | ||
| 18/08/2023 | A fund-raising Golf Day, with raffles, dinner and an auction was held. The event raised $30,000 and also saw the launch of our Song for Arundel, composed by a local resident. | ||
| 31/08/2023 | The public consultation period for Development Application MCU/2023/84 started. | ||
| 02/09/2023 | The Neighbourhood Champions were trained in the use of the Submission Kit materials. Over the next few weeks, they once again door-knocked extensively throughout the local community to encourage people to make a submission and assist them in doing so. | ||
| 16/09/2023 | The first ‘pop-up shop’ event was held to engage with members of the community and encourage them to object to the Development Application. Over the next 5 weeks, a further four such events were held, some involving the participation of Sam O’Connor, the State member for Bonney. | ||
| 16/10/2023 | Based on extensive input from Hickey Lawyers and a huge amount of detailed work by committee members, the Association’s own submission in response to MCU/2023/84 is finalised and submitted. |
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| 17/10/2023 | The public consultation period for MCU/2024/83 closed. It later emerged that of the approximately 1,100 submissions, over 90% were objections and most of those in support were ‘cut and paste’ submissions made by people associated with A B Paterson College, which stood to benefit from the schemee. |
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| 29/10/2023 | To celebrate our success in generating so many responses to the DA, a BBQ was held at Colgate-Palmolive Park. This event also marked the launch of our Petition to the Council, officially asking the council to reject the Development Application. Again, our Neighbourhood Champions did the hard yards, knocking on doors to ask people to sign the petition. | ||
| 06/11/2023 | Letters were sent to the Mayor and all Councillors seeking face-to-face meetings and attaching the Association’s submission of objection to MCU/2023/84. Committee executives met individually with Councillors over the period November/December to advocate the community’s objection to the DA. | ||
| 15/11/2023 | At a meeting with the Mayor, the Association handed-over the Petition, containing some 1,340 signatures. Face-to-face meetings were held with some Councillors on that day too. | ||
| 2024 | |||
| 22/01/2024 | City of Gold Coast Council’s Planning Committee met to consider (amongst other things) the report prepared on MCU/2023/84 by council planning officers. The Planning Committee voted to support the planning officers’ recommendation to reject the DA. The chair of the Planning Committee gave a commitment that if the developer chose to pursue the DA further – via the courts – the Council would fight against that with all resources at its disposal. | ||
| 25/01/2024 | The full City of Gold Coast Council met. MCU/2023/84 was on the agenda. The full council unanimously voted to reject the DA. The length and forcefulness of the planning officers’ recommendation was noted by the Mayor and most of the councillors who spoke. The Chair of the Planning Committee repeated his commitment that the Council would use all its resources to continue the fight in the courts if necessary and that was echoed by the Mayor. | ||
| 25/01/2024 | A celebration event was held at Arundel Tavern to mark our victory in terms of Council’s rejection of the DA. Many of those who had contributed time and effort to that victory were in attendance. It was also a celebration of the community’s participation and support, without which none of this could have happened. | ||
| ??/01/2024 | The committee applied to join the Gold Coast Community Alliance, which is made up of community organisations working together to achieve a more liveable city. | ||
| 02/02/2024 | The official council notificaion of its decision to reject MCU/2023/84 was emailed to all parties, including all those who had submitted a response during the public consultation period. The notification includes the long list of reasons for rejection.
See the document sent by the Council with the notification of rejection |
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| 24/02/2024 | The Association’s first AGM was held. A new committee was elected. Katharine Campbell stood down from her position as the inaugural Secretary of the Association and received a huge vote of thanks from all those present. Katharine’s dedication, hard work, professionalism, knowledge, experience and patience made a massive contribution to the establishment of the Association and its success. | ||
| 28/02/2024 | The developers filed an appeal at the Queensland Planning and Environment court, to challenge the Council’s rejection of the Development Application.
You can see more information about the appeal court case here. |
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| 07/03/2024 | Everyone who registered a “properly made submission” with the council during the public notification period for MCU/2023/84 had the right to register as a co-respondent, alongside the council, to have their voice heard in court. The Association launched a campaign to get as many objectors as possible to register by completing a Form 6 for the court. Once again, the Neighbourhood Champions hit the streets to make the invitation personal. | ||
| 10/03/2024 | The centerpiece of the campaign to register co-respondents was a pop-up event that was run at the home of committee members Glenn and Adrienne Pearson. While a few dozen were expected to attend to complete their Form 6 with assistance provided by the Association, the actual number was in the hundreds – smashing all expectations. | ||
| 13/03/2024 | The total number of forms collected by the Association numbered some 700. Each was copied in triplicate, as required by the court, and the resulting mountain of paper was taken to the court for the co-respondents to be registered. It was only at that time we found out that the court expected each form to also be presented electronically as a “text searchable” PDF, with each file named according to a specified standard. Through a huge effort by two volunteers, the electronic renditions were completed overnight and the forms were returned to the court the next day for registration to be completed. The number of co-respondents eventually registered remains unprecedented in any case ever heard before the court. | ||
| 26/03/2024 | Due to the large number of co-respondents, who clearly could not all attend a hearing in person, the judge presiding over the case required that each co-respondent should appoint an Agent to act on her/his behalf. Two members of the committee volunteered to act as Agents – committing themselves to personally be in attendance at the court for each hearing. Each co-respondent was requested to complete another form (Form 10) to register their use of an agent. | ||
| 15/04/2024 | Queensland’s Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning and Minister for Public Works, Meaghan Scanlon MP notified all parties involved in the original Development Application that she was considering using her powers to call-in the DA for ministerial consideration. It is apparent from the documentation that this action is being considered at the sole request of the developer. A call-in is a mechanism by which a minister can substitute a ministerial decision for that made by the council. Public feedback on whether or not the call-in should proceed was allowed for a period that ended on 5th May. | ||
| 27/04/2024 | With assistance and guidance from the Gold Coast Alliance, the Association created an easy on-line mechanism for sending a standard objection to Meaghan Scanlon, opposing the proposed call-in. The contents of the letter were created in consultation with Hickey Lawyers. | ||
| 05/05/2024 | By the time the feedback period closed, over 2,000 objections to the call-in had been sent. | ||
| 05/06/2024 | After a month of consideration, Ms Scanlon issued the outcome of her considerations with regard to the call-in. She decided not to proceed with the call-in, which felt like a victory for the Association (and other objectors) but at the same time, in another unexpected twist, she advised that she was directing her department to draft a Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI) for the site. | ||
| 22/07/2024 | A draft TLPI was published by Ms Scanlon with feedback invited, said feedback to be submitted by 2nd August 2024 – a period of just 9 working days! In a shock move, the draft TLPI mandated the building of far more dwellings than the original Development Application sought to create. This necessitates much higher housing density, with buildings of up to six stories being proposed. The draft TLPI also mandated maximum plot sizes, with the size specified being much smaller than that typical in the area. It also refers to “innovative parking and car sharing schemes”, without specifying exactly what those might be, and uses that concept to justify a much lower ratio of car parking spaces to dwellings than is typical.
See the Draft TLPI document |
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| 25/07/2024 | The Association circulated, to its members and supporters, a standard letter of objection to the draft TLPI, together with instructions on how to respond to the TLPI. The Community Alliance later distributed this to its members too, inviting them to submit an objection. | ||
| 28/07/2024 | A pop-up event was held at Arundel Plaza, together with Bonney MP, Sam O’Connor, to advise people of the threat posed by the TLPI and invite them to submit an objection. That same weekend, our Neighbourhood Champions completed a letter-drop of letters, also provided by Sam O’Connor, advising people how to see the TLPI and object if they felt moved to do so. | ||
| 02/08/2024 | The work that the committee has put in forging links with like-minded organisations led to both the Community Alliance and the Gecko Environment Council submitting their own objections to the TLPI. It later emerged that 1,865 responses were submitted, although it is not yet clear how many of those were objections and how many were in support of the draft TLPI. | ||
| 02/08/2024 | The feedback period for the TLPI closed. No indication was given about how long the wait would be for a ministerial decision and the potential emergence of a finalised TLPI. | ||
| 04/09/2024 | The finalised TLPI is published. It appears to be substantially identical to the draft, with apparently no notice taken of the objections that were raised.
View the TLPI Document |
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| 22/09/2024 | A very successful community Town Hall meeting was held at Arundel State School . See the home page of this site for details. | ||
| 30/09/2024 | In an answer to a parliamentary question raised by Sam O’Connor MP, Meaghan Scanlon MP disclosed that 1.865 submissions were received in response to the draft. Of those, 1,800 were objections. Yet this made no difference to the minister who published the TLPI with no substantive changes from the draft. | ||
| 11/10/2024 | A new Develpoment Application (DA) was submitted for the Arundel Hills site to the City of Gold Coast Council. It has been given the reference COM/2024/309. At present no details of the contents of that DA are available via the Council’s PD Online portal. However, it is reasonable to anticipate that the DA will conform to the rules set out in the TLPI. Further information will be added to this website when the contents of the DA are shared. | ||
| 15/10/2024 | The documents detailing the plans for the new Development Application became available on the Council’s PD Online web site. The plans do conform to the TLPI, proposing the construction of approximately 800 dwellings! You can see the documents using the links below.
COM/2024/309 Forms |
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| 22/10/2024 | A hearing was held at the Queensland Planning and Environment Court regarding the appeal by the developers against the council’s rejection of their original Development Application (DA). At that hearing, the judge agreed for the matter to be adjourned until 3rd March 2025. It appears that the developers are being allowed to take two bites of the cherry. If there is a change of state government in the forthcoming election and the TLPI is repealed, which would obviate DA COM/2024/309,, then the developer will have the chance to continue with the appeal against the rejection of the original DA. | ||
| 30/10/2024 | The planning department of Gold Coast City Council wrote to the developers to inform them that the Develolpment Application submitted on 11th October was deficient in several regards and was deemed to have been “not properly made”. | ||
| 01/11/2024 | Local State MP, Sam O’Connor is appointed as housing minister in the newly-elected Queensland Government. | ||
| 04/11/2024 | In a radio interview, Sam O’Connor confirms the commitment “to put the future of the Arundel Hills site back in the hands of the Council”, i.e. to find a way to cancel the TLPI. | ||
| 16/11/2024 | News reports appear in various media stating that the Queensland Government is taking actions to allow the TLPI to be cancelled. | ||
| 18/11/2024 | In a radio interview, Sam O’Connor and Queensland Deputy Premier (and Minister for Planning) Jarrod Bleijie confirm the news of action being taken. | ||
| 19/11/2024 | A special meeting of City of Gold Coast Council is held to formally go through the processes of cancelling the TLPI. Jarrod Bleijie and Sam O’Connor are both present to witness proceedings and there is extensive media coverage of this momentous event. Details of how this was covered in the media and everything else connected to the TLPI can be found at the link below. | ||
| 06/02/2024 | In advance of the resumption of the appeal court case relating to the developer’s original Development Application, the Association launches its major fund-raising campaign. Even though the Council will be pursuing the case with all the resources at its disposal, maintaining a seat at the table for the Association, with necessary legal support, throughout the proceedings is likely to be a costly matter. | ||
| 22/02/2024 | The Association held its 2025 AGM. | ||
| (Details will be added in respect of further activities in the continung Arundel Hills Community Association story.) |
