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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Above-par site for hemp field

Claire Konkes, Hobart Mercury

HOBART, Tasmania, Australia — A plan for a luxury tourism development on the Richmond Valley golf course has been rejected because it does not fit the area’s historic character.

And the developers of the proposed 4-1/2 star accommodation and wine centre are now threatening to convert the course to a hemp field.

Three businessmen have a contract to buy the course pending Clarence City Council approval of their plans.

Melbourne businessman Toby Ralph said the golf course was unprofitable as it stood.

“Obviously we have to generate a return and the course just isn’t economic,” Mr Ralph said.

The council had told him the golf course was zoned for agriculture, so he and his two Tasmanian partners would plant hemp if they were not allowed to build a resort.

“The good news, though, is that we don’t need to stuff about with an unresponsive, anti-development council. We can just get on with it,” Mr Ralph said.

Acting Clarence Mayor Jock Campbell said the council received several written submissions from residents opposed to the development and deliberated long and hard before rejecting the proposal last week.

Alderman Campbell said the council welcomed development as long as it was sensitive to the historic atmosphere of Richmond.

“It was inappropriate to have the very modern-type design at the immediate approach to the historic valley,” he said.

Ald Campbell said the council had no objection to the wine centre part of the proposal.

“It was all or nothing for them, though,” he said. “They flatly refused the opportunity to withdraw their application for further consideration.”

The course’s owner, Tony Nicholas, said the proponents of the hemp plan had until September to decide if they wanted to buy the golf course.

The rejection is good news for the Richmond Valley Golf Club, which understood the new development would include ripping out the trees members have planted in recent years to improve what was originally a paddock.

President and treasurer Jim Bonnily said he could see no logic in wiping out the golf course to grow a hemp crop.

Copyright © 2004, Hobart Mercury. All rights reserved.

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