Anniversary of Amalgamation
15 March 2018
Today marks ten years since the Douglas Shire disappeared, amalgamated with the Cairns City Council to become Cairns Regional Council at local Council elections on 15 March, 2008.
The Douglas Shire Council had come to an end after governing the community for almost 105 years. In 1903 the Council had replaced the Douglas Divisional Board, ironically created separately from Cairns in 1880.
Throughout Queensland, 157 local councils were amalgamated into 72 larger ones by Premier Peter Beattie’s State Labor government.
Mike Berwick had been Mayor of the Douglas Shire council for 17 years. “To be suddenly out of a job was a mixture of relief and sadness.” he said.
“The last council was a difficult one, with some pretty divergent views about key issues like conservation and development and it publically fought to the point of community embarrassment.
“I actually recommended to the Local Government Minister Desley Boyle that they put in an administrator. We had trouble with the CEO, and the government asked us to show cause why we should not be dismissed.
So eventually we parted with the CEO and we didn’t get dismissed. But we got amalgamated.”
Julia Leu was appointed Acting CEO, later to be elected the sole Douglas representative on the Cairns Regional Council.
“We thought Douglas would survive because we were a distinctive council with catchment boundaries and we were financially strong. We felt we could not be amalgamated with Cairns because it was so big.
The council prepared a submission headed ‘A Single Term of Bad Government is no Reason to Eliminate the Shire Forever.’
A survey of the Douglas community showed 77% were opposed amalgamation and favoured an independent shire.
On 27 July, 2007 all Mayors and CEOs were invited to Brisbane for the announcement of the Reform Process. Julia remembers “There was a big screen with a map of Queensland and Douglas wasn’t on it. They read out the names. Cairns Regional Council was going to incorporate Douglas. I had to ring home and tell the staff and it sent shock waves through the community.
“The next day a spontaneous protest occurred and everyone descended on the Mossman council office. It was decided that everything would be done to fight this amalgamation.”
A protest march moving up Macrossan Street to Anzac Park was organised for 5 August.
Bringing children and dogs, over 2000 people, many in red T-shirts proclaiming ‘Green Shire Sees Red’, waved banners and sang “We don’t want no amalgamation, we don’t want no Cairns control.” Their message was conveyed nationally by the media.
Bill Phillips-Turner’s grandfather W S Johnston was a Douglas Shire Councillor between 1933 and 1946. And as the Chairman of the Mossman Central Mill at the time, Bill was asked to speak at the march’s end.
“I’ve never marched in my life until that day. Images from the past showed people that marched got locked up. I couldn’t get over the number of people that were there. So many angry people that would not normally march. It brought the whole community together.
“Several industry stakeholders spoke and it concerned us, not only me as a cane farmer, but me as a miller. It was disenfranchising us. Everyone here has had to persevere and we felt our voice was being completely taken away with the forced merger.”
Michael Gabour was an organiser of the march, and owned Radio Port Douglas.
He recalls “Mike Berwick spoke, Julia Leu spoke on behalf of Council staff’s potential loss of jobs, Hazel Douglas spoke for the aboriginal community, Diane Cilento spoke representing the arts and culture of the Shire, then our State MP for Cook, Jason O’Brien spoke and was literally booed from the park.”
Another organiser, Robert Hanan, remembers “Jason O’Brien lost his temper and shouted ‘I hope there’s more amalgamations.’ Talk about Green Shire Sees Red. Green Shire sees infra-red at that.”
Julia felt that the crowd lost faith in O’Brien. “They were astounded that he didn’t understand how people felt about having their own council.”
Within days, Michael and Robert took key roles in establishing the Friends of Douglas Shire
to press the Queensland Government not to go ahead with the merger, and assist the local council’s pleas to remain independent.
Michael remembers “FoDs was not a formal association, it was a network of people having free membership by putting their names down through the website, where we communicated any efforts to get people to work on various aspects.
“The other approach for the steering committee was direct meetings with political players and co-operating with people with similar goals like Free Noosa.
The loss of local identity, limited council representation and rate rises were the immediate concerns, followed by fears that the award-winning Douglas town plan would be swallowed by Cairns, and high-rise buildings could be allowed along the beach front.
“Our rates went up about 30%, and to be honest, our rates were a bit low,” remembers Mike Berwick.
“We had a special rate for holiday units that raised close to a million dollars a year and that was for absentee owners and it paid for our tourism levy. So locals’ rates went up and absentee rates went down.”
The levy was discontinued by the new council.
Mike says ”The Douglas Shire planning scheme is what has kept Douglas the way it is. It’s kept the urban development in tight areas so we don’t have the strip development along all the roads. That has meant that rates are cost effective because you can supply services efficiently. It’s kept the beauty of the Shire, it’s kept the agricultural industry, it’s kept development off the hillsides and it’s stopped Daintree looking like Mission Beach.”
“We had a completely different town plan than Cairns City Council.” says Julia. “We knew that over time those two town plans would have to be merged, so things that were important to Douglas would be lost.”
“That was probably THE major concern for those of us who worked so hard,” says Michael, but de-amalgamation came before the Douglas town plan was absorbed.
Michael Gabour remembers the Douglas community being very proud of its chemical-free water supply. “We had micro-filtration with ultra violet treatment for our water. Chlorine does not kill giardia. The only way you get it out is by filtration, and the occasional e-coli was killed through the ultra violet.”
“One of the great tragedies of the amalgamation is that they chlorinated the water supply,” says Mike Berwick. “Cairns Water turned on the Port Douglas water storage which we kept turned off, that had sat there for years unused, and it had bugs in it. Because of that, they chlorinated the entire system and of course the State government supported them. I think clean water was one of the most popular things we ever did.
Douglas Shire residents felt they were a breed apart from the big city of Cairns, protecting their iconic Reef and Rainforests in their own way, and promoting their own tourism. Their individual identity was threatened and they angrily wanted to remain independent.
“We used the time until the actual amalgamation to do our best to get Labor to reconsider their decision”, says Michael.
But their protests fell on deaf ears, and the State Government called for elections for the amalgamated Cairns Regional Council. A new Division 10 had been created to encompass Douglas, but because its population was low, it also had to include Palm Cove, Clifton Beach and islands like Green and Double Island. It was the largest Division in size.
Bill Phillips-Turner was one of eight people who stood for election as the Division 10 councillor.
“I felt it was a great injustice to the Shire, jackboot political decisions being made like this, a midnight raid with no grounds for appeal, and I decided you can’t complain about it unless you’re prepared to do something. The powers-that-be were looking at Douglas Shire not having a voice.
“I felt I had to be part of a team. I didn’t appreciate the backlash that would come as a result.
“I stood for Kevin Byrne’s Cairns Unity Team. He was the Mayor of Cairns City. I believed it was one way of having a say in a much bigger pond. I know some people were upset that I did it. It wasn’t to keep Julia out. I didn’t think she’d be successful in this league. But I realised people were very angry and they voted against the council of the day. Kevin was a strong personality but he ended up losing.”
Julia Leu remembers “I was asked to stand and I knew I had a good understanding of local government and significant community experience. I felt the person really needed to know what funding opportunities there were, what sort of infrastructure was needed and have a knowledge of the community, our local events, and our town plan. I knew it would be a fight to make sure all those things were funded. I resigned as CEO in January 2008, not knowing what my job would be after March if I lost.”
On a very rainy Saturday, Julia won the election with a majority of 76% including preferences, and became the Division 10 Councillor, a lone voice fighting to uphold Douglas’s integrity against nine others, with a Cairns-based new Mayor, Val Schier.
The Douglas Shire Council was no more, amalgamated on 15 March 2008 into the Cairns Regional Council.
The merged council was eager to rebrand Douglas, covering DSC street signs with the CRC logo.
Robert Hanan remembers “They took down the metal letters Douglas Shire Council from the Mossman council office wall. It’s only that Julia saw them in the skip bin that she realised what happened and finally had them put back.
“Our street sweeper was removed to Cairns. I can remember that caused a furore.
“Most of the crews were coming up from there which meant they didn’t arrive till 9 and had to leave at 2, causing more traffic on the highway.”
Julia remembers being in her Mossman office and hearing an echo. “Senior management had gone. When they went for jobs as part of the new council they weren’t successful. Middle management went to Cairns. There were about 50 people left in the office and people in our depots were still here.”
The Friends of Douglas Shire continued their relentless de-amalgamation campaign for another 5 years, taking the community with them through protest marches, town hall rallies, hundreds of letters, emails and submissions. Many people became disenchanted with the prospects but the core committee, Michael, Robert, Julia, Mike, David Carey, Roisin Allen, Alan Carle and Gail Shaw persevered. Their mantra was “Failure is not an option”. The community contributed services and support.
They consulted experts such as Professor Brian Dollery who wrote the report on the Mansfield, Victoria de-amalgamation, concluding there is no financial saving in merging councils. Professor Don Bursill, a world-renown expert on water, said the chemical-free system could be returned.
“In the first six months, it was clear that amalgamation wasn’t working.” says Julia. “There was always this constant struggle to make sure everything that was important for Douglas was attended to. I was doing a lot of driving, about 1000 kms a week, and if I was invited to community meetings at Palm Cove or Clifton Beach I would always go. There was increasing community unrest, people felt we were a suburb of Cairns, local contractors weren’t getting the work, so I called a public meeting at Mossman Town Hall. I was threatened with a Breach of Code of Conduct by the CRC if I continued, but I refused to stop.”
Robert Hanan says “Our petition for de-amalgamation got 3,200 signatures and we presented it to new Premier Anna Bligh at the meeting in Mossman on October 28, 2008. That was the biggest crowd they’d ever had in that hall. Over 800 people. She certainly didn’t expect a crowd like that, and she got heckled. Julia did what the press called her ‘rock star performance’ and listed all the things that were wrong with amalgamation and got rousing applause, whereas Anna didn’t get any.”
With the ruling Labor Party maintaining their stance on amalgamation, FoDs decided on another tack, and obtained a promise in writing from the Shadow Ministers in the LNP that if they won the State election, they would look at de-amalgamation.
Howard Hobbs was Shadow Local Government Minister and a keen advocate for the de-amalgamation of Douglas.
“He’s the only one outside of the Shire who’s actually read our town plan” says Robert. “He gave us a framework for what our presentations needed to cover, not just the detailed financial aspects but the social and community aspects too.”
The LNP won the State election on 24 March 2012 partly due to voter backlash to local amalgamations. Jason O’Brien lost his seat to David Kempton.
“Premier Campbell Newman drew up his list of 100 things to do in his first 100 days, and we were number 100.” remembers Robert.
“They wished they’d never said they would de-amalgamate and we said ‘it’s in writing’, and eventually they allowed four local governments to have a referendum,” says Mike.
Mike, as part of FoDs, recalls “When we put our submission to the new government, this little team, of which Robert Hanan was a key player, said we recommend you get rid of divisions and you only have 5 councillors. You don’t need 7 councillors for a little place like this. So they just did that. It was one of the easiest things we’d ever achieved. Look at the result we’ve got out it, a co-operative, intelligent and functional council.”
“Fortunately David Carey spent two years going through the last budget of the Douglas Shire line by line, and had developed a new budget showing that it would be a financially viable local government.” says Michael Gabour.
”Queensland Treasury’s figures were way out. David’s number for the cost of de-amalgamation in the wash-up was spot on.” remembers Mike Berwick.
A referendum was called for 9 March 2013 to gauge public opinion on de-amalgamation from Cairns.
“The No campaign came out of nowhere. They seemed to be highly funded from developers possibly, it was never really clear who was funding advertisements.” says Julia.
Robert remembers “They got a semi-trailer and put a sign on the sides of it saying Say No to De-amalgamation and they dragged it around town, leaving it in Port one night and Mossman the next. Gail just crossed out the No on a photo of it and wrote Yes, and we ran it as an ad saying ‘The money we saved on the truck, we’ll spend on bringing you the facts.’
At the referendum, 57.6% of electors voted Yes to restore the Douglas Shire Council. Other successful councils to regain their independence were Noosa, Livingstone and Mareeba.
Michael says “Failure would’ve meant the end of the Douglas Shire, and for most of us one of the reasons we’re here is because of the local identity and culture that exists. We’re very different from the larger city mentality.”
Bill recalls “I just did not think you’d ever unscramble the egg. And I was against it because I didn’t think it would work. Anyway the people had a say, there was a vote, so that’s the end of that, move on.”
“Unscrambling the egg would have been difficult if they’d sold the council chambers, sacked all the staff and got rid of the depots and machinery. You’d have to start again,” says Mike. “but in our case, it was relatively straightforward.”
At a local election on 9 November 2013, Julia Leu was elected Mayor with four councillors.
The Douglas Shire Council was restored, to begin work from its Mossman office on 1 January 2014.
Pam Willis Burden, article published in Port Douglas and Mossman Gazette, 15 March 2018.
