Lagoon Sound Bites Johnson Bernhardi and Ireland 11Dec19

THE Douglas Shire community was given the chance to fire questions at key council staff and the landscape designer behind the huge lagoon vision for Port Douglas at a series of two-hour community engagement sessions today. The Council say they want to build Australia’s first chemical-free public swimming hole next to Four Mile Beach. Designer Phillip Johnson was on hand to meet the public and present his ideas.Council has earmarked land around the Port Douglas Life Saving Club for the project, which they say will be the first public crocodile and stinger free-swimming area for the town. But in the first session many locals wanted to know how much it was going to cost and maintain. "We don't know" was the answer that came back. One Council staff member did hint it could be be in the tens of millions to build the massive infrastructure. Our sound bites include Designer Phillip Johnson, Local GP Dr Alex Bernhardi who was an audience member and Tourism Advocate Gerry Ireland who had his say during question time.