Have your Say - Protect What you love about Mission Beach

 A Material Change of Use application has been lodged for a Tourist Park & Events Proposal (MCU25/0032)

​A large new tourism proposal at Alexander Drive includes a tourist park, cabins, camping/caravans, an events centre for up to 500 people, and recreation areas mapped in rainforest habitat.

​Why the Community Is Concerned — and Why Your Voice Matters

EPBC Cassowary Corridor 

World Heritage - Strategic Rehabilitation and Priority Agricultural  Areas 

High value niche cropping - Vanilla farming at Mission Beach

Bank clearing at Wylie Creek

1. Recreation Area Planned Inside High-Value Rainforest Habitat
The proposal maps a large area of rainforest as an 'outdoor recreation area" without explaining what is intended. The website is also unclear, promoting activities incompatible with this fragile environment.
This area lies inside an EPBC-listed cassowary corridor, contains high-value rainforest, and sits on steep, erosion-prone basalt soils.
Any recreation use (walking tracks, bike trails, viewing points) would mean:

• vegetation disturbance
• erosion into Wylie Creek
• disruption of cassowary movement
• more human–cassowary encounters
• habitat fragmentation

No mapping or assessment is provided.
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2. MCU = Permanent Loss of Farmland
The property contains the rare Clump Point basalt soils, mapped as Priority Agricultural Land.
Although the applicant claims agriculture could continue, approval of a Material Change of Use (MCU) makes this highly unlikely. Once land shifts to tourism:

• agricultural use becomes impractical
• land value and expectations change permanently
• further tourism or residential intensification becomes likely

Farmland lost to tourism never comes back.
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3. Ecotourism & Agritourism — This Proposal Is Not What’s Intended
While small, low-impact ecotourism and agritourism (e.g., hip-camping, farm stays, tours on working farms) are supported on rural land, these activities are meant to supplement agricultural income — not replace it.
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This development is the opposite: tourism and events would dominate the site, overwhelming any future for agriculture and contradicting the intended purpose of agritourism diversification.
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4.Large Event Numbers = More Traffic on Narrow Cassowary Roads
Events of up to 500 people will generate large traffic volumes with caravans, campervans, and service vehicles.
From the north, navigation apps direct drivers along Bingil Bay Road — a narrow, winding rainforest road used daily by cassowaries.
This dramatically increases:

• disruption to the quiet amenity of the neighbourhood
• congestion near the jetty
• cassowary vehicle-strike risk

The Traffic Impact Assessment does not address cassowary risk.

5.Community Vision: Low-Key Villages Separated by Rainforest & Farmland

Mission Beach has a deeply rooted community expectation: low-key coastal villages separated by rainforest and farmland. This proposal introduces a large tourism and events hub in a sensitive rural location — conflicting with the character and landscape pattern the community has defended for decades.
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Why Your Submission Matters
​Every submission counts -- whether it’s one sentence or one page.

Council must consider all properly made submissions.
This is our chance as a community to stand together for:

• farmland
• cassowaries
• Wylie Creek
• the rural and village character of Mission Beach
• thoughtful, genuinely low-impact development

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How to Make a Submission
​Include:

• Your name and address
• Application number MCU25/0032
• Your concerns (choose any listed above)
• A closing statement such as: “I object to this development.”
• Your signature (if not submitting via website)

Where to Send It​

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​Email: [email protected]
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Subject: Submission – MCU25/0032 Alexander Drive

Submissions close 4th Dec 2025​

Download application

See the full application here

Together we can protect what makes Mission Beach special.