Page
15
Instead, the
Association members slashed it with brush hooks and a borrowed
tractor and mowed it with domestic lawn mowers.
We continued to
lobby for regular mowing but it took years to obtain it and
seventeen years to have the park developed to where it is today.
The next major
issue was a direct result of the flood. Shortly after that
disaster, an auction was held to sell off land owned by people who
wanted out at any price.
Land was sold for stupid prices,
three to four hundred dollars per block.
In 1977 the
aftermath hit with a vengeance. Much of the cheap land had been
purchased by a developer who decided to offer cheap land and house
packages in the area.
Although the estate
had a brick and tile covenant, it applied only to first land
buyers and the auctioned land was therefore exempt.
A bitter fight
resulted. The details are too lengthy for this brief summary, but
the end result was the reintroduction of the covenant and the end
of the cheap housing project.
In the first four
years of its existence, the M.P.A. had prevented Mandalay from
becoming an area which most later residents would have avoided.
Without the
association, it would have become an area of small cheap homes
surrounding a complex of three sporting fields with fences and
club houses. The noise levels from the river industries would have
encouraged that scenario throughout the estate.
But the big fights were yet to
come.
Any engineering
theory that the best way to eliminate a sewage problem at the
Oxley creek outlet of the Donaldson Rd Sewage works was to blast a
tunnel under existing homes and to dump the stuff further
upstream, a section of the river that is "flushed" only
in flood periods, would have failed to achieve a passing grade for
a year one university student.
Nevertheless, this
was the plan submitted by council engineers and approved by
council.
So began our
biggest fight. I spent six months full time on it. Others donated
money and time and an incredible effort. Groups on the other side
of the river formed and the resulting mass meetings were the most
heated I have ever attended.
We forced the
formulation of an engineer's committee with experts representing
each interested party. The M.P.A. hired an engineering consultancy
firm and also obtained the services of a University of Queensland
expert in the field.
15
