{"id":259733,"date":"2020-06-16T13:45:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T03:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=259733"},"modified":"2020-07-01T11:50:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T01:50:28","slug":"dark-sky-petition-goes-to-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/06\/16\/dark-sky-petition-goes-to-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Sky Petition Goes To Council"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bunya Mountains property owner and ecologist Bruce Thompson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 16, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

A second petition supporting a push to have the Bunya Mountains declared a “Dark Sky Park” will be presented to the South Burnett Regional Council at their general meeting this week.<\/p>\n

The petition contains more than 300 signatures collected by the main proponent, local landowner Bruce Thompson.<\/p>\n

A similar petition has been prepared for the Western Downs Regional Council which has jurisdiction over the rest of the Bunya Mountains area.<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson has been advocating for the Bunya Mountains to become a Dark Sky Park for several years, building on an earlier Dark Skies proposal which had been floated by local astronomer James Barclay in 2016.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Barclay pulled out of the Bunyas project in 2019 after opposition to the proposal by Bunya Mountains’ residents.<\/p>\n

South Burnett CEO Mark Pitt told southburnett.com.au\u00a0on Monday that Council’s position on the proposal had not changed from that stated by then-Mayor Keith Campbell in 2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said Council was supportive of the concept but it needed to be “community-led”.<\/p>\n

“If the community really wants this, they need to fund it and drive it,” Mr Pitt said.<\/p>\n

He said no funds had been allocated for the Light Management Plan which would be a necessary part of the project.<\/p>\n

It has been estimated this plan could cost $20,000 to develop.<\/p>\n

Mr Pitt said a major sticking point for Council would be the ongoing enforcement of a Light Management Plan – which would take on the force of a local law and become a Council responsibility.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It gets very complicated with enforcement,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson recently unveiled a new website, Dark Sky Warrior<\/a><\/strong>, in support of the project.<\/p>\n

He said\u00a0 it did not make sense why the South Burnett and Western Downs councils would not be supporting a Dark Sky Park “given the economic benefits for the region especially during the COVID recession and what could be another episode of drought”.<\/p>\n

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