Its nearly a year since I put up the previous page on the Maleny Woolworths saga and interest is growing once again as the development appears to be about to begin in earnest. That page has contributed to articles in the Sunshine coast Daily and The Range News which has, in turn, prompted this page.
12 Months Later and the “saved” tree
still festooned with an abandoned dwelling |
|
 |
It is around 3 years since this saga began in earnest with the announcement that Peninsula Developers were planning to build a supermarket shopping centre in Myrtle Street. Since then Maleny has been bombarded with sustained negative projections about the dire consequences should a major chain supermarket Woolworths staart operations in Maleny. The feedback I have received via Strange Views about the consequences of major supermarkets in rural communities has been positive, local media coverage has chosen to focus exclusively - at times I found hysterically - on the negative side.
Throughout these past 12 months the “divide” between the protestors and the “rest of the world” has deepened and widened until Maleny is now deeply divided and, to all intents and purposes, obsessed with non-event.
Continual statements such as “if Woolworths builds a supermarket in Maleny our community will be destoyed” have appeared in the Range News who has consistently refused to publish any contrary opinions other than what has been allowed in the letters to the editor section.
But now concrete is being poured, construction site offices are in place and there is a strong sustained police presence in Maleny.
|
You would be forgiven if you thought that the struggle was over, that the law of the land had triumphed and that the community was returning to what passes for normal. This is not my experience; just like a ham actor who, mesmerised by the attention of an audience, refuses to leave the stage once his lines are done and so ruins the show for one and all, the protestors are sustaining their “irrational diatribe of opposition and fanaticism”.
Calm descends on the construction site as initial excavations gingerly probe for the phantom platypus, platypussies or platypie |
Several business owners in Maleny have had visits threatening them with boycotts and worse for such offences as
- an employee tooting the horn in a fashion deemed inappropriate or unsupportive to “the cause”
- for being critical about the "we shall not be moved" mentality
- for cheering at the wrong moment
Phrases such as “we know where your children go to school” are rumoured to have been used suggesting some amongst the protest movement have degenerated to a level to which not even Woolworths would stoop. However I have found it impossible to corroborate this story - which was from a highly respected and reliable source - as the threat appears to have been taken seriously.
So the chickens of 3 years of negativity and fearmongering appear to be coming home to roost - the community is suffering, businesses are suffering, people are feeling threatened - but not because a Woolworths store is being built in town. Rather it is as though some people have become so addicted to outraged righteous opposition that they are - like junkies on other drugs - turning on their neighbours whose attitudes diverge from the sanctity of this particular addiction - dare I call it “jihad”? - and opposing them and their assets (aka boycotting their businesses) to support their habit with a curiously-woolworths-like callous disregard for the consequences to their community.
`
Meanwhile the Woolworths construction continues behind a thick blue line and fear and loathing feeds on the confused carcass of a once-vibrant village. It is becoming apparent that the protests are inflicting far more damage on the community than a Woolworths supermarket ever could. Many of the protestors are pleased to announce that they come from elsewhere - places such as Conondale and Crystal Waters - yet they believe they have the right to threaten Maleny business people for having a divergent opinion about what they prefer for their own town. I find this behaviour indistinguishable from the much-maligned Woolworths approach of “we don't care what you want we'll go ahead anyway”.
- Just as there was a time when the catchcry was “protect local businesses” - but now there are threats to boycott these same businesses if they should dare to disagree.
- Just as there was a time when the campaign was to “Retain Maleny's Character” - but the character being retained is no longer one to which anybody aspires and is becoming more dictatorial and deeply divided as time goes by.
- Just as there was a time when it was all about “saving the trees” - but the surviving specimens were abandoned festooned with plastic once they had served their purpose.
- Just as there was a time when opposition was focussed on aversion to a “concrete monstrosity adorning our creek bank” - but this vision (see below) on Maleny's main entrance is acceptable? - and still there is no welcome for anyone.
Tired of trying to “Discover the Magic”? - Maleny's visitors are now greeted by this |
Perhaps the most outstanding development of the campaign is that the tactics and hype from some of the protestors have come to display a similar lack of rationality, lack of respect and self-righteous indifference to the wellbeing of the community as the very behaviour which they oppose and decry so fiercely. Things have degraded into a one-sided shouting match between the pot and the kettle. For me it is an archetypical demonstration of “what you oppose you become”.
At present there are another 600 houses in the pipeline, an additional 1500 to 3000 people will swell our population within a few years yet it is challenging to find any local prominence accorded to a single voice which advocates planned growth, rational development or cohesive cooperation of any kind. And I, for one, have lost count of the number of talkfests espousing sustainable community development from which it seems a nimby-like opposition alone has resulted.
I believe Maleny is in dire need of some sane, positive and pragmatic leadership - it is not that there is none, however sustained one-sided media coverage has relegated those voices to distant, derided echoes. Sadly, there are elements in Maleny who publicly espouse diversity, sustainability, tolerance and acceptance while privately seeking to denigrate or destroy anything they do not control or accept as their own. I doubt this is unique to our community however.
There are definite upsides to the saga - at last a new protest movement has arisen - this one peopled by long-term residents and business-owners - whose slogans include “Protestors Go Home!” and “Give US Back Our Town”. It seems that the legendary Maleny tolerance, which has over the past decades welcomed so many drifters
to call Maleny “home”, has reached a limit. Perhaps at last those whose sweat, blood and tears built the foundations on which Maleny stands have had enough - after all its been over 30 years since the hippie influx began.
Any entity or enterprise which is going somewhere needs leadership and direction otherwise it risks wandering aimlessly in ever decreasing circles to eventually disappear up its own fundament. Maleny has been subjected to 3 years of negativity, fear and loathing without any balancing positivity, inspiration or appreciation.
This, far more than the predatory incursions of a large corporation, have bruised and battered the spirit of Maleny.
Perhaps the black hole apparently looming ahead is nothing more than a fundamental orifice through which the waste, devoid of nutritional value to the host, must be excreted for the continued health and wellbeing of the community.
|
|
“It seems apparent that
they are only peaceful
when you agree with them” |
|
| Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation. William Arthur Wood |
Maleny's new image? |
|
