Great Keppel Island Forum builds momentum
Posted on February 10th, 2021
Attendees packed the conference room at Beaches restaurant Rosslyn Bay on Monday 8th February to be given a comprehensive briefing on the vision and planning process for the re-building and future of the Great Keppel Island resort. Capricorn Enterprise CEO Mary Carroll was MC at the Forum.
GKI Association President Ross O’Reilly said: “We were blown away by the number of people who turned up on a Monday night in the middle of a storm to hear about the project and how they could support it going ahead.”
“It was an exceptional group. We welcomed Federal government representatives Michelle Landry and Senator Matt Canavan, State government MP Brittany Lauga and both Livingstone and Rockhampton mayors. Almost all the Livingstone Shire Councillors were there, highlighting how important the project is for our region.”
“There were many highly influential business people in the crowd who asked some great questions about the development, the approvals, the process for transferring the leases to Altum and how accessible the island will be to locals once the resort is up and running again.”
Altum Director Rob McCready, who was invited by the GKI Progress Association to present Altum’s vision to the community, said: “It was great to be asked by the GKI Progress association to speak to the community about the project. We have felt so much support in the time we started working on the Great Keppel Island project and it was an absolute pleasure to have the chance to present our vision for the island.”
“We covered in detail the public infrastructure required to be built on the island and the costs involved in this, the sustainability initiatives to be introduced to the island including water collection and regenerative farming and the Altum vision which is to create Australia best family holiday destination.”
“We are heading to the island today with around 20 local and regional Queensland consultants and contractors to commence the master planning process and start working on the solutions to some of the more complicated issues of the island, such as how we can successfully refurbish the old restaurant building as a hospitality and retail hub, salvage the accommodation and staff units and deal with rubbish and security concerns.”
Mr O’Reilly commented; “The most important outcomes from the forum last night for the Association are to keep the community informed about the project’s progress and give them the opportunity to have their voice heard about the island’s future.”
“We also wanted to give Livingstone Shire Council the information they need to get right behind the project and ensure it goes ahead. We need to work as a community to ensure the project gets all the support it needs from Council. it is too important for our region not to fight for.”
Information about joining the GKI Progress Association, including goals of the association, member benefits and how to become a member is available at: gkiprogress.com.
