Sustainable Sport NEWS

The new $600 million Great Keppel Island eco-resort will be some of the best news Queensland's tourism industry has had in a decade if the project is approved, according to Tourism Queensland (TQ).

TQ Chief Executive Anthony Hayes was commenting on the release of the environmental impact statement for the proposed Great Keppel Island re-development on the Capricorn Coast, which, subject to approval, will see a low-rise eco-tourism resort constructed over a 12 year period. Nearly seven years after developer Tower Holdings the company bought the island site for $16 million, and after two failed attempts to redevelop a new resort, the new plan has been dramatically scaled-back in order to finally gain government approval.

Tower Holdings, has slashed $2 billion off its initial proposal for the Great Barrier Reef site which previously included three hotels with 700 rooms, two golf courses, a 560-berth marina, 1,500 resort villas and 1,200 resort apartments. These plans were rejected by then-Federal Environment Kinister Peter Garrett in 2009 and the former Queensland Labor Government in 2006.

The first stage of the Great Keppel Island (GKI) Revitalisation Plan proposes a new 250-suite hotel at Fisherman's Beach with accompanying restaurants and conference facilities.

It would also contain a 250-berth marina at Putney Beach including a yacht club and around 150 marine precinct apartments, a ferry terminal and staff accommodation.

Subsequent stages would include more villas, apartments and a Greg Norman-designed golf course, an upgraded airstrip, Research Centre and a 575 hectare Environmental Protection Area.

The scaled-back plan covers 3.5% of the island.

Compiled over almost two years with the input of more than 90 technical experts, the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the new Resort has now been completed and lodged with the State and Federal Governments.

Comment on the EIS is invited up to 7th September and can be made by clicking here.

Tower Holdings' Manager Anthony Aiossa said would be the largest new tourism project in 20 years, adding that the resort would be a test case for future possible development on the Great Barrier Reef.

He stated "there's a general feeling among the tourism community that it's very difficult to get new resorts approved in the reef.

"This is a real test (to see) if the country wants a new tourism product in the reef or not."

Wecloming the proposal, TQ's Anthony Hayes stated "since the closure of the old, once-iconic Great Keppel Island resort, the Capricorn region has been waiting for a major new resort project.

"If it goes through, the new Great Keppel Island resort will bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars into the region and will be a huge show of confidence in the future of Queensland's tourism industry.

"The process Tower Holdings has undertaken also shows the company's commitment to the project and to the tourism potential that an eco-resort of this standard will bring to Queensland."

Hayes said despite a challenging couple of years for Queensland's $18 billion tourism industry, confidence in the industry's future was high, a fact testified to by a range of tourism developments and refurbishments and new airline routes and capacity. The island's 40-year-old former Mercure Resort resort closed in 2008 while the first parts of the new resort could be open by late 2014.

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