Drawing on vast experience to produce new lagoon vision
Douglas waterfront
He stresses they have only been created as indicative images to promote discussion about the benefits of building a lagoon on the Port Douglas waterfront near the Sugar Wharf, but long-time Port Douglas architect Gary Hunt’s sublime new designs are a breath of fresh air for a debate that has been raging for more than 20 years.
Should a Port Douglas lagoon be built?
This has been the million-dollar question since the first regional Port masterplan was starting to be developed back in 2005.
At least two surveys have shown more than 70 per cent of Douglas Shire locals want a lagoon, but each attempt to build one has met seemingly insurmountable hurdles around where the money is going to come from and whether governments can afford to build and maintain it.
Now the Shire’s Rotary club and Mowbray-based architecture firm Hunt Design are throwing their combined weight behind the latest lagoon vision, with a recent presentation to Douglas Shire Council outlining a bold new direction for the project.
Seemingly ironically, Mr Hunt has helped design and build other lagoons and massive resort pools across the state, including the hugely popular Airlie Beach Lagoon, but his ongoing attempts to get one across the line during the past 20 years in his own region have until now amounted to little.
“The ultimate size and scale and form and everything else with the lagoon will only be crystallised once you go through a proper proof-of-concept study,” Mr Hunt emphasises about his latest conceptual drawings.
“We’ve got to ensure there’s a huge amount of community involvement in crystallising what the end result should be.
“We see it as a conversation starter.”
And that study will help establish how much the cost will be to operate the lagoon, including the price to build it in the first place, and the economic benefits to the region, he said.
The current councillors were impressed by the group’s presentation to the June council meeting, and have endorsed a Douglas Shire letter of support so that Rotary and Hunt Design can lobby the State and Federal Governments and private business to raise the money needed to both build and run the new tourist attraction.
The Airlie lagoon is said to have cost about $16m to build more than 10 years ago, but steeply rising costs since then will mean a Port Douglas project with a similar scale will cost significantly more than that.
Mr Hunt, however, said new technology has made ongoing maintenance costs more manageable, with high-tech sensors and automated pool cleaners now being used at new lagoons being built around the world.
The benefits for tourism will be huge, he said, with the Airlie lagoon increasing the length of stays of visitors there by about a third, he said.
“If we build something that really captures people’s imagination, and it can be the locals, can be visitors to the region, and so on, more people will come because it’s such a wonderful destination - the reason for people to come to Port Douglas,” he said.
“They may be living or staying in Palm Cove, they may be tourists down in Cairns, and hear about this place up in Port Douglas, they want to be there to enjoy this special environment,” he said.
The Rotary Club of Douglas FNQ is exploring a range of potential funding streams to avoid any impact on ratepayers, emphasising that a new lagoon would “provide significant social and economic benefits, enhance the region’s competitive tourism offering, and create a landmark community asset”.
In its letter of support, the council states the lagoon has the “potential to deliver meaningful social, recreational, and economic benefits to the Douglas Shire and Far North Queensland communities”.
“The success of similar lagoon-style facilities across Queensland demonstrates their capacity to enhance destination appeal, increase visitation, support local businesses, and provide safe, accessible, year-round swimming opportunities for both residents, visitors and tourists,” the letter states.
