Agnes and Ecstasy – vol XVI 

January

12th January: Who's come visiting our site so far this month? (Personally I suspect the 'Unknown' Country is somewhere out of space and we shall shortly have an alien invasion - what fun!)

Num	Perc.	Country Name
813	74.52%	Australia
80	7.33%	United States
45	4.12%	United Kingdom
42	3.85%	Unknown	-
26	2.38%	Switzerland
20	1.83%	United Arab Emirates
11	1.01%	New Zealand
9	0.82%	China
9	0.82%	South Africa
8	0.73%	Singapore
8	0.73%	Netherlands
5	0.46%	Romania
3	0.27%	Canada
2	0.18%	Sweden
1	0.09%	Ireland
1	0.09%	Zimbabwe
1	0.09%	Norway
1	0.09%	Taiwan
1	0.09%	Germany
1	0.09%	Israel
1	0.09%	Swaziland
1	0.09%	France
1	0.09%	Poland
1	0.09%	Austria

'All the world is queer save thee and me. And even thee art a little queer' to quote the father of the co-operative movement. Well, we have a fair share of his 'thee's' in Agnes Water. I think of them as the Agnes Water TLCs (Thieves Liars and Cheats). Usually they just blunder through life making mistakes then trying to force some other fellow into paying for them. Usually a customer. I am guessing that it works a fair bit as we have only lived here 18 months but have had four such attempts, that spring quickly to mind so maybe more, tried on us - thankfully to no avail. Schoolyard bully tactics basically but tried against grown-ups. Same tactics used against sand dune sheoaks are more successful in the short term.

Below is the first news story of the beachfront vegetation vandalism in front of the Mantra Pavilions Mirage for the usual objective - money. Basically 80 or so people parted with anything from $500,00 to maybe $900,000 to buy 'beach front' apartments which don't have any view of the beach. It has long been pretty obvious that 'some-one' would do this as soon as the apartments were ready for occupancy - and surprise, surprise they did exactly that. Cut down the trees that hid 'their' view and which dropped planned resale values. Bully boys really. They didn't have any fight with anyone; they just wanted to abuse our land for their selfish but understandable aims. If I had bought there I guess I might for one dark moment think about it too but I wouldn't do it. Maybe for ethical reasons, but definitely cos I know enough about the sand dunes there to pray to God that no one else would do it or my property would be renamed the Titanic at the next storm surge.

Beachfront trees vandalised in Agnes Water

Friday, 12 January  2007 

Reporter: Catherine Goldie

Presenter: Wayne Shearman

Agnes Water Landcare claims the trees were damaged to improve the ocean views from some nearby residential properties.
One of the damaged trees on the Agnes Water beachfront. Photos courtesy Frank George.

An Agnes Water environmental group claims approximately 300 metres of sand dunes have been targeted by vandals, who are ring barking trees to improve their views.

Local Landcare president Frank George said the situation has escalated over the last two months, since its members first noticed the destruction in front of a beachfront development.

Mr George said he believes the motive behind the destruction was for some residents of the development to obtain better views.

Frank says the beach sheoaks which have been ring barked are more than 20 years old.

"They provide the front line protection from the salt laden and sand laden winds that blow onto the beach there," Mr george said. "The problem is that if the sheoaks are removed the dunes are unprotected."

He says there is serious risk of erosion and further vegetation destruction if the trees die.

A spokesman for developer, CKG Properties, says they are not aware of any illegal action being undertaken on the sand dunes.

He says there was an incident more than six months ago where trees were pruned by residents but that situation was quickly addressed.

http://www.abc.net.au/widebay/stories/s1825490.htm?backyard

Solution, that is if our Council is prepared to act quickly and on our behalf ......

Erect screens and signs positioned to cut off the 'new views' - many Australian Councils have adopted this method rather than trying to find and fine the vandals.

And, as a good friend reminded me, do the same all along the Agnes Water beach dunes where trees and shrubs suddenly succumb to poison or butchery thereby creating a great line of sight view for a building. It's not just at Mantra Pavilions that this has been occurring, folks.

Tree killers

Presenter: Clare Valley

Tuesday, 16 November  2004 

Who wouldn’t love a house with a view?

It can make a big difference to your temperament, really, being able to look out at the ocean, or across the top of town, or to rolling green hills...but would you kill for a view?

Evidently some people would, or so the local Noosa Shire in Queensland has found when they discovered protected trees poisoned or cut down to improve a person’s view.

However, the shire has found a clever way of dealing with a small number of people who are destroying trees for their own benefit.

Noosa local councillor, Russell Green, was surprised to receive a phone call from ABC South Coast in Albany, but thanks to a quick thinking South Coast listener who managed to take a photograph of the sign and scene while on holidays, Mr Green was happy to explain the situation.

Tree poising and clearing are happening too often throughout the Noosa shire because of the prestigious property market and fabulous views residents can get from their homes.

Councillor Green admits that it is very hard to catch the culprits in the act.
“We’ve had private investigators, we had the police involved in it and haven’t been able to pinpoint a culprit and that’s why the council took the action of erecting the sign.”

http://www.abc.net.au/southcoast/stories/s1242331.htm