by Kerry Larsen and Mat Churchill  

Only a couple of weeks remain for the community to have its say on a proposed evacuation centre for the Douglas region.

And the debate on whether to pursue the project as a multi-purpose facility - complete with sporting facilities, a possible indoor cinema, or library has been turned on its head with the idea of using existing holiday accommodation as evacuation facilities.

It follows a push by community members and Member for Cook, Jason O'Brien, for a new elevated evacuation centre to be built at Mowbray Street, adjacent to the Port Douglas Community Centre (see The Newsport article 'Time Running Out for Evacuation Centre', Wednesday 1 June), or to extend Port Douglas State School in Reef Park.

Member for Leichardt, Warren Enstch, and Port Douglas Chamber of Commerce president, Ken Dobbs, have pitched in on the debate, citing existing buildings within the holiday accommodation sector could be the answer.

"Rather than get a stand-alone facility, if we get funding and put it towards public infrastructure that can be incorporated into an existing building, that may be a better outcome," Mr Entsch said.

"That building could be at the Sheraton Mirage, for example, a facility that can be used at other times of the year.

"This is a challenge for the community to come up with some ideas that increase the delivery of services to the area and short-list the best ones."

Mr Dobbs also supports the use of existing facilities for evacuation centre by stating vacant holiday apartments could be used in the event of a cyclone.

"The evacuation centre is for two reasons, the wind and tidal surge, and there's not a lot of land around Port Douglas that is high enough," Mr Dobbs said.

"Most of the apartment buildings in Port Douglas are three levels, the middle level has concrete below and above.

"If you're in a place that is one floor up with concrete roof and concrete floor and another floor to go up if things get tight with water, that should be pretty safe.

"We could possibly have 1000 of those apartments in Port Douglas that are vacant in the wet season."

Mr Dobbs says the idea could be a more financially sustainable outcome in the coming years.

"Obviously you would need to establish a contract with various properties which were considered suitable.

"If it required a payment by the government at some level, that payment would be a small percentage for outlay of capital costs of building something, minus
some of the operating costs and the depreciation and maintenance," he said.

"That's not only saving five or ten million dollars in initial outlay, but the cost over the years associated with maintaining a building."

However Russell Jean, who has been campaigning for a new evacuation centre/community complex, said the idea is impractical.

"Who's going to pay for the rooms and at what price?

"Say if we get devastation like Cardwell and I'm in there for a month, I'm in there for two months. What do you do? You can't expect private enterprise to carry that fee.

When Cyclone Yasi was bearing down on the East coast earlier this year, a number of resort managers such as Club Tropical and Nautilus Apartments opened thier doors to offer shelter from the storm, which thankfully tracked south of our region.

"I don't think you'd have any dramas whatsoever with a private resort saying 'yeah, jump in' for the period it takes for that cyclone to come and go, then I would expect they'd be saying 'out you get,'" Mr Jean said.

"All these sorts of places, all they are is a short term fix...the idea is is to have the (evacuation) centre that caters for 2,000 people.

"That centre is there for the initial impact, and then it becomes a recovery centre.

"If we don't get in now and run with this as much as we can we're going to miss the boat."